Fang's Story: The Angel Experiment
by fnickforever
Summary: Take a closer look in Fang's mind as award-winning "Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment" is told in this seemingly quiet teenager's perspective. Rated T for language and my paranoia! FIRST I've ever written, don't hate D:
1. Chapter 1: Fugitive

**Chapter 1**

_Pant, pant, pant._

Branches snapped as I zipped away, trying to get through them. My ears were ringing but could still sense the faint chirp of the nearby birds nestled safely on the treetops.

_Pant, pant, pant. _

Ahead, I could make out what looks to be the sun finally rising above the deep blue Pacific-thanks to my...extra special vision.

How's that for imagery? And they said you needed school. Ha.

At first you would think this situation seemed normal and completely okay.

But sooner or later, you'll figure out that normal really isn't a word you could _ever _describe my life. You'll see.

I sprinted, along the forest, attempting so hard not to think about my bleeding arm that made mosquito bites look like a gift sent down from heaven above.

Bet you didn't see that one coming, now did ya?

Now imagine how _I _feel, me actually being in this situation, mind you, and multiply that feeling times ten-since, rabid human-lupine hybrids chasing me to my imminent death isn't exactly what I would call a "perfect morning."

But hey, story of my life, right?

"YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE," one of the human-lupine hybrids, aka Erasers, cackled.

I could outrun them. It was just this dang arm I keep worrying about. And it doesn't exactly help that each step I took made me wince-given that I had been running for a while now. _Did I mention I was barefoot? _

I stopped in my tracks, panting, feeling like I could have puked out one of my lungs right then and there. I coughed violently, only to be forced to run again by the sound of the maniacal laughter. .

I was brought to halt when I realized at the end of the forest was a _cliff. _I gulped and peered down. My jaw almost dropped, realizing that nothing was below me but the cold sea and jagged rocks.

_My, those look sharp today. _

"You're dead, sucker," an Eraser growled from behind. I whipped my head around to see over a dozen of those mangy wolves surrounding me. I sighed.

"Don't push your luck," I smirked. I closed my eyes, opened my arms, and just fell back. I dropped like a stone when I finally rolled around and unfurled my wings. I cringed.

_Note to self: Safer exits are much better than dramatic ones-no matter how much fun they seem. _

The Erasers howled as I flipped them the bird from a distance, even if I knew they'd have a hard time to see it from far away. Still, it felt pretty good.

"I _WILL _SURVIVE! I yelled. In my head, that line made me think of the song "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor and chuckled to myself. I wiped away a cold drop of sweat from my good hand, even though it was also covered in blood, given I had to use it to coddle the other one. "NO MATTER WHAT!"

"Yes, Fang. You will survive," a voice whispered. I turned around to see Iggy, one of my best friends, right beside me. If it was possible to jump while flying, I would have been doing it.

And you wanna know the best part?

He was on a unicorn. And was strumming a ukelele.

"Iggy?" I squinted, seeing a glint of evil sparkling in his eyes. But then again, when did they not?

Leave it to Iggy to scare the hell out of me.

He grinned, raising his ukelele and smacked me, upside the head. My wings folded in and I was losing altitude fast.

And suddenly, the world turned black.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's note:<strong>_

_**For those who were confused why Fang had a similar dream as Max towards the beginning, I was actually kinda trying to imply that the Flock had similar dreams because of their disturbing childhood. Nevertheless, if you got this far to read it, you are now one of my favorite people! Please review and keep reading! ^_^**_


	2. Chapter 2: Morning Glory

**Chapter 2**

_CRASH!_

"Ugh..." I groaned, scratching my head. I stood up shakily and caught a glimpse of Iggy's eyes blinking open, his body was turned to the side towards me. None of us are huge back-sleepers, really. He wore a large shirt that said "Pale is the new black" and sweatpants that he seemed to have overgrown, as it was already half-way up to his knees. Iggy was the type of guy girls would usually notice; he has pale reddish-blond slightly overgrown hair, very pale eyes, and pale skin. Sometimes I tease him by asking if he was going out to "sparkle" whenever he asked the flock if we could go outside.

Usually it follows with me having a black eye for the next three days.

But that's okay. Sometimes it's completely worth it.

"Nice of you to finally join me, princess," he uttered in that classic Iggy-way of his. "Now, I've been listening to you moan and groan the past couple hours. Either you were having a pretty bad nightmare or some _real _fun with Max, if you get what I'm saying."

Iggy snickered. That was when an UFP, Unidentified Flying Pillow, "accidentally" socked him in the gut, knocking the air out of him. He winced.

"WHAT THE HELL, FANG?"

"Good morning," I greeted nonchalantly.

"We all know it's true," he grumbled, caressing his stomach. "My poor, poor tummy. Come on, let's feed you."

Before I managed to take aim at him the second time, he zipped past me and trudged downstairs for breakfast, not tripping even once. Even if I'd known Iggy all fourteen years of my life, it still amazes me that he can see his way through without _literally _seeing.

Yes, my friends, the Iggy has been blind every since we were very young. Why, you ask? Well, it's quite a story really.

You see, I live with my family of six hidden in the mountains of Colorado. No one knows about us for the past four years that we've been here. Except for Jeb. A scientist that treated us like his own and helped us escape from the evil School. For most of our lives, we were experimented on for countless days and nights. My childhood was scarred with memories of being locked away in a steel cage.

I shuddered. But Jeb disappeared two years ago. We all knew he was dead. We were all just too stubborn to talk about it.

Anyway. Back to the story.

Now, we live on our own, all six of us. Max, Iggy, and I are fourteen, Max being the oldest of the three and Iggy being the youngest. Nudge is twelve, the Gasman is eight, and Angel is six. We're what you call _special_. Iggy, as I have aforementioned, is blind because some insane scientists decided to play experiment on Iggy's eyes to give him night vision.

They failed. That's a whoops on their part and a whole line of swear words on ours. Still, we try to live with it. As much as we would love to forget about the School and our scarring childhood, we can't. Thanks to something called psychology, disturbing memories can never be forgotten. The operative word there being _never_.

Naturally, we don't go to regular school either. So thank the heavens for television and the Internet. We were free, all right. No cages and whatnot. If I looked outside the window, I would only see miles and miles of forest and mountains.

I rummaged through my small closet to find something decently clean to wear. We didn't own much, but we had enough to get us through the days. Same old, same old. Hm, that's odd. I could've sworn my black sweatshirt was here before. Max had given it to me for my birthday three years ago. If she found out I lost it...

Crap.

After throwing on the usual black shirts-and-pants combo, I opened my door, and began walking downstairs.

Time to face another day.


	3. Chapter 3: Not Your Average Breakfast

**Chapter 3**

"Fine," I heard Max's voice as I turned the corner to reach the kitchen. I spotted Gazzy already getting a headstart by pouring juice sleepily in several glasses, one for each of us. "Miss breakfast."

Max had her head stuck inside the refrigerator, searching for food probably. Though not as pale in comparison with Iggy, Max was also pretty light-skinned herself. I had more of an olive complexion. However, unlike Iggy's, Max's eyes were a deep brown that anyone could get completely lost in. Though it was still morning, her hair fell perfectly just on her shoulders, even if I knew she uses the kitchen scissors to whack it off when it started to annoy her. I studied her back. God, I sounded like a stalker. What was I even thinking? I blinked back. _This is Max for crying out loud. _The same Max I had felt bad about because I broke her arm practicing self-defense.

Then Max's shoulders tensed up as she whipped her head around to look at me. Her eyes narrowed at me as I raised my eyebrows.

"Will you _quit _that?" she asked.

Here we go, another reference how "silent" I am. I narrowed my eyes back at her, running my hair through my overly grown hair. Half of the flock always complained how my hair was always too long-unnatural for a dude almost. But whatever.

"Quit what?" I calmly asked, my words dripping with sarcasm. "Breathing?"

She rolled her eyes. "You know _what._"

Sighing, Iggy felt forced out of his more-than-comfortable position on the living room couch. "I'll make eggs," he announced reluctantly as he scrambled to his feet (no pun intended). I always found it hilarious that Iggy, the _blind _one may I remind you, is better at cooking than Max-who is supposed to be our leader. It's just one of those _ironic_ situations. Let's just say we don't joke around about how women should stay in the kitchen. 'Cause if that woman was Max, we would just lose all our appetites completely. Anyone really up for extra burnt hotdogs that's _beyond _well-done?

Not that we would joke around about women, anyway. Max had come around calling the guys "sexist pigs" lately. It doesn't exactly scream _motivation._

Max scanned the kitchen and opened her mouth to speak.

"Fang? You set the table. I'll go get Nudge and Angel."

I nodded, just as she hopped up the stairs to wake the other girls up. I headed for the cupboard and pulled out six plates, setting them on the round table.

"Scramblin' these eggs, all day long," Iggy hummed. "Scramblin' these eggs while I sing this song. Doo-do-da-da-do."

I rolled my eyes, realizing it was a useless effect on Iggy, since...you know. "I'm rolling my eyes, Ig."

"That's great for you," he replied without missing a beat. The Gasman plopped himself on the chair, his blue eyes dreary with sleepiness. Gazzy was the only one out of the whole flock who was actually related to Angel. Similar to Angel, he was blonde and was completely tall for his age. People could make mistake him as a ten-year-old if he tried. He watched me intently as I stared at the small table with great interest, tapping my fingers on the hard wood.

"Hey, Fang?" Gazzy said. I glanced up at him, motioning to continue. I wasn't much of a talker, you see. Action speaks better than words, remember? It's a saying I tend to live by. I find it better to just keep my mouth shut, rather than saying something really _really _stupid. It doesn't exactly help that Angel's a mind reader and can hear all the stupid things I avoid saying.

Yes, you heard me, the six-year-old is a freaking _mind reader._ No big deal.

Before he could continue, Max, Nudge, and Angel finally came down.

"I'll tell you later," he quickly whispered. I nodded.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: _**

**_Hey guys! This might be the last update for the next few days, since I don't have my copy of the Angel Experiment right now. I'm only half-way done on Chapter 4, since I can't really finish it. But I hope you guys are liking it so far! I don't really know where I'm going with this though, however I have other MR fanfics up my sleeve that I wanna get a start on writing. I'm still contemplating whether I should start them or not. Either way, I hope you still continue to follow me whatever my decision may be. Reviews are always appreciated!_**

**_Thanks!_**

**_Fly On, _**

**_FnickForever._**


	4. Chapter 4: Twist of Fate

**Chapter 4**

Besides being only 98% human (yes, you heard me), we have _huge _appetites. Like, three-thousand-calories-a-day huge? We're not the most sophisticated eaters, either.

So when I say dig in, I really do mean, _dig through the eggs with your freaking bare hands. _

"I want to go pick strawberries today," Angel marveled. "They're ripe now."

"Okay, Angel, I'll go with you," the Gasman said.

That's when he let it rip. Iggy's pale eyes widened.

"Oh, jeez, Gazzy," Max said disapprovingly. Angel stayed quiet, frowned, and pinched her nose with her finger.

"Gas...mask!" Iggy choked out, pretending to vomit.

"I'm _done,_" I said, finally standing up and dropped my plate in the sink. _Thud!_

And now you know why we call him "the Gasman."

"Sorry," Gazzy apologized. He kept eating. I barfed in my mouth a bit. _How the heck does he even do that? _

"Yeah, Angel," said Nudge, interrupting my thoughts. "I think the _fresh air _would do us all good, I'll go too."

"You could say that again," I muttered to myself, low enough for no one to hear me. I sat back at my spot on the table.

"We'll _all _go," Max decided, as she placed her plate in the sink and ran back upstairs with the other girls to get ready. Which left me with Iggy and Gazzy. I sighed.

"How come we get stuck doing all the kitchen crap?" Iggy complained, abruptly standing up from his seat, and went off to the sink. I glanced back at Gazzy who was just done chugging down his third glass of orange juice.

"So anyways," Gazzy started. "I have a...confession to make."

Oh crap. Let's rewind for a second there. The Gasman..._confessing _about something? Clearly something was terribly wrong. Either that or this wasn't the real Gazzy. You never really know in our lives.

"Did you happen to notice your black sweatshirt gone? You know, the one you got three years ago? The one Max gave you?" he asked. _Uh oh. _

I gulped. "Yeah?"

"Well, it's still black, heh," he gave a small chuckle. "But, it's scattered all over the forest now."

"_What _exactly did you do?" I asked. Gazzy shrugged. By now, I could hear Iggy snickering in the background, which is why I proceeded into throwing the closest spoon right at his head.

"OW!" he yelled. "THAT'S THE SECOND TIME THIS MORNING. WHAT, DID YOU DECIDE IT WAS TRY-AND-MAIM-IGGY DAY?"

I chuckled softly to my self. Not saying anything more, I turned back to Gazzy. He could probably sense the confusion in my face, since it was completely unnatural for him to confess his mischievous ways. After what seemed like hours, which were really only seconds, he spoke up.

"Angel read my mind. Then, she told Nudge. Then, they both threatened to tell Max if I didn't confess. You know how they are," he explained. I nodded in sympathy. "And God knows what Max would do to Iggy and I if she found out we've been blowing people's stuff again."

"Blackmail," I sighed. Looking into the distance for dramatic effect. Okay, it wasn't that dramatic, but you know what I mean. "Should've known."

"Well, anyways. I'm sorry. So are you going to tell Max?" he looked at me with apologetic eyes. Or more specifically, _Bambi _eyes. I sighed again.

_"Fine,"_ I gave in. "But you better find a new reason why that sweatshirt's gone. 'Cause when Max finds out about this, and how I've been hiding from her, as well. We're _all _dead."

He nodded profusely and gave me a salute. Like on cue, Angel, Nudge, and Max came down from upstairs. Our leader looked at us suspiciously, crossing her arms.

"What are you guys up to?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. By the looks of Angel's expression, she had read both mine and Gazzy's mind and knew that he had confessed. She smiled cheerfully.

"Oh, nothing," I said _so _convincingly, looking at anything but Max.

"You do realize that I know you're lying through your teeth?" she sighed. "But I don't even think I wanna know-

"Alright!" Angel cut in. "Let's go!" And we all went out the door. Just another day of our seemingly _normal _lives.

Haha, yeah right.

* * *

><p>In front of me, Angel walked with Max hand-in-hand, cheerful as ever. Springtime was always Angel's favorite season of the year. She loved to go outside and look at all the free animals roaming arounds.<p>

Hey! Kinda like us, I guess!

Once we were in the wild strawberries area, she let go of Max's hand and ran through the field, with one basket in her hand. Her short, blonde curls were flouncing around in the air. I had to admit, it was pretty darn cute.

She ran back to Max and grabbed her hand, tugging her slightly. "If you make cake, I can make strawberry shortcakes."

I glanced back at the Gasman, who had the same light blonde hair as Angel, except his eyes looked mischievous. What's new? I thought. He gave me a sideways look and held up his finger.

"Yeah, that'll be the day, when Max makes a cake," he yelled, mimicking Iggy's voice perfectly. I grinned. _Ohhhh boy. _

Max whirled around, glaring at Iggy, her hands on her hips. "Oh, thank you!" she yelled. "Okay, I'm not a fabulous cook. But I can still kick your butt and don't you forget it!"

Iggy burst out laughing and held his hands up in denial. Nudge, who was unusually quiet 'til now, was trying to smother her laugh with her hand. I, Mr. Emotionless Brick Wall, was grinning.

"Was that _you?" _she asked Gazzy with her eyes narrowed and pointed at him.

Gazzy only grinned and shrugged, looking as smug as ever. Typical Gazzy, getting into trouble with his evil gift of mimicry. We've gotten into so many fights because of it, yet he still used it over and over again. It was pretty funny, as long as it wasn't towards me. Just another ability in our merry group of children. We were so caught up in laughing, almost crying actually, that we hadn't realized the chopper noises from afar. Or the howls. Or the hugely terrifying wolves coming straight at us.

We didn't realize all that until I heard Angel stiffen and completely let out her ice-cold shriek. So cold that it brought chills down my spine.

Yeah, they were Erasers.

And hell yeah, were they real.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Sorry I haven't been updating too fast guys. To be frank, I'm new to FanFiction and have been mindlessly exploring the Maximum Ride section and dear GOD there's a lot of fanfics about Fang and Max! I just can't help myself. Surely you understand. Nevertheless, I shall not fail you!_**

**_Iggy: Yes, you will. _**

**_Me: SAYS WHO!_**

**_Chuck Norris: Says me. _**

**_Me: Uh...what?_**

**_Iggy: Heh heh..._**


	5. Chapter 5: Living Nightmare

**Chapter 5  
><strong>

Guess you can tell now that my dream wasn't _totally_ fake, right? Keep reading, you get used to it. Even if _I_ never did. But hey, you're not the one trying to escape an imminent death so I guess you could. Maybe.

Anyway, imagine all our faces when they all dropped down the sky. Where they came from, only God knows, but I was quite surprised Iggy didn't hear them coming. We all have pretty good hearing, though Iggy outranks us all, what with the whole blind thing and all.

But let me tell you one thing before I continue: Erasers stink worse than Gazzy on burrito night.

So back to the fight scene, and man, was it _brutal_. I was doing pretty well, if I do say so myself. The first Eraser leaped toward me, but I took a large step to the right and as it lay groaning on the ground, I cracked my knuckles and jumped on it, hearing a crunch that I assumed was its spine. (The cracking of knuckles thing was definitely for badass effect only.) Another Eraser started running full-on, his fist readily aimed at me and-

_Flashback_

_"Don't think, Fang, just _do_," Jeb coached as Iggy threw a side kick at me, aiming at my stomach. I grabbed his foot, twisting it clockwise and heard a thud as he descended to the crowd. I looked back at Jeb, looking for approval._

_"Exactly," he beamed, as I tugged Iggy's arm, helping him off the ground._

_End flashblack_

-I shook my head. That was two years ago. Now it was time to put it to good use. But before I could block, an Eraser grabbed my arms to hold me steady while the one before threw a sucker right in my right eye.

"_That's_ gonna leave a mark," an Eraser cackled, landing a hit on my stomach this time as I struggled to break free. An _oof _came out of my mouth along with a spit of blood. They threw me down to the ground, holding me down while others kicked the daylights out of me. I tried to claw my way but to no avail. Well, this _sucked_. On top of that, my eye started swelling shut. I could make out Iggy with my left eye, still holding down his ground, but Gazzy was lay flat on the ground out cold.

Even though we were crazy strong, stronger than the average adult man, the Erasers still had us beat. There must have been dozens here, too, so there goes the quantity upperhand out the window.

Then, one of the wolves lost grip for a second, enough time to kick back and scramble to my feet. I threw roundhouse kicks all around me, trying to hit the daylights out of these scumbags. Though as amazing as that would be, I didn't have that kind of luck and was pinned to the ground again within seconds. _Damn you light-weightedness_, I cursed myself as one of my painfully bruised cheeks held pressed against the ground. This was just _peachy_.

"Screw all of you," I muttered, which cost me another hit to the gut. _I hope every single one of you die painfully_, I thought.

"SHUT UP!" one of _them_ shrieked in my ear. At a distance, I could see an exchange between a different-looking, yet farmiliar Eraser and Max. She, also, was pinned to the ground. It seemed to be the trend these days...

"You don't recognize me? I guess I've grown some," I heard the farmiliar Eraser say, smiling evilly. _Who was this guy?_

I saw Max's eyes widen in horror, probably realizing who it was and saw her mouth the word, Ari. Hm, Ari? Ari. Ah-ree. Who the heck was Ari?

_Flashback_

_Listening to the flock sleep was not that boring. Despite the occasional nightmares, everyone seemed almost...peaceful. Except for Gazzy, we definitely need to discuss about his "sleep-flatulance." I didn't even think that was possible, but then again, we exist, so I guess it's not so impossible in comparison.  
><em>

_I whipped my head around to see Jeb, who was sitting on his desk across the wide, open room. Hmm, Jeb. He was okay. He was nicer to us than most whitecoats, or if you haven't caught on, evil scientists in white unfashionable lab coats. But, I know for a fact he liked Max best. It was just one of those things._

_Suddenly, the door creaked and in came a small figure. Naturally, I lay my head down and closed my eyes, but only enough to convince them I was asleep. I could make out the small figure, child probably, heading towards Jeb. Jeb looked at the shadow, and smiled._

_"Hi, Ari."_

_End Flashback._

I blinked my eyes back again. Ari? Like _Jeb's son _Ari? Wait what? Ari was this huge and bulky Eraser. How can that be? At most he's probably like, seven years old. So I guess the whitecoats have improved technology nowadays. I gulped.

Well, crap.

* * *

><p><strong><em>If you're still tuning in to Fang's Story: The Angel Experiment, I salute you! Not only have you made me happy, but..uhm...yeah, that's about it. You've made me happy, heh. R&amp;R please! I work really hard on these and make sure they're fresh and believable ^_^<em>**

**_Nudge: Don't you mean "Beliebable"? *giggle*_**

**_Iggy: Shut up, Nudge. He makes my ears bleed more than you, which is saying something. _**

**_Nudge: Hmph. _**


	6. Chapter 6: Still Not Waking Up

_**A/N: GAH, DON'T KILL ME SINCE I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SEVERAL DAYS. I WAS BUSY. AND BY BUSY I MEAN HAVING NO LIFE AND READING FAX FANFICS. SORRYSORRYSORRY. HOPE YOU ENJOY. **_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 6<strong>

After that one moment of sudden realization, I figured one of those freaking Erasers knocked me out cold, 'cause the next thing I know, they're all gone. Who did they think they were, Houdini? Well, if Houdini had paws and teeth that smelled like crap that is.

Alarmed, I quickly sat upright, scanning my surroundings, only to find everyone knocked out cold. On my right, I found the Gasman laying flat. I nudged him.  
>No response. Then, his eyes blinked several times. Apparently sensing the stillness of his surroundings, he shot upright.<p>

"Whaa...?" Gazzy replied groggily, then finally realizing where we were. "What happened? Where is everyone?"

"Out cold," I replied flatly. "Angel's-Angel's gone."

He looked at me with wide, terrified eyes and was about to say something when heard a long and terrible groan, apparently coming from Max. We headed towards her warily and peered down at her.

"I'm okay," she croaked, sounding like it had hurt her to say it in the first place. "Where's Angel?"

I looked at her intensely. Her deep brown eyes were full with worry, making my next statement even harder to say. "She's gone. They took her."

Still frowning, she closed her eyes, trying to think. She always made this face whenever she thought back about our childhood. I mentally shuddered at the thought and waited for her response. Her eyes shot open again, now filled with rage and vengeance, something so rare, it was mainly reserved for death glares toward Erasers many years ago. Finally, she groaned and attempted to stand upright without falling over. I offered her my hand and she leaned against my shoulder for balance.

"We've got to get her," she said. "We've got to get her before they-"

And just like that she was lost in thought. But she didn't need to say anymore, I knew what she meant. We all did.

"Check in, guys-are you up for a chase?" Max asked and her eyes scanned from top to bottom toward the four of us.

And believe me, we didn't exactly look like we just went through a field of wild daisies. Gotta love the essence of fresh blood on our clothes. Yeah, it's very in this season. I almost laughed.

"Yes," Nudge choked out, sounding so convincing. Note the sarcasm, which by the way, doesn't transfer well on paper, mind you.

"I'm up," Iggy said. And the Gasman just looked at Max with completely horrified eyes. I couldn't really blame him, though. His only blood relative he knew of was snatched away, just like that.

I, too, glanced back at Max. I squinted momentarily and realized her eyes looked red, about to burst into tears, which would never happen. We just don't cry. I didn't even know if we were capable of tearing up in the first place. She wiped them away very quickly with her hand, which was completely stained in blood, dirt, and most likely sweat as well. I decided to not acknowledge it to save us a teary Max, something my heart would not be able to take.

God, I'm such a girl.

Suddenly, Iggy cocked his head and we all went dead silent. Listening intently, I could make out a faint noise.

"There!" Iggy yelled and pointed to the distance, deep in the woods. We all sprinted, though since we were just beaten to the pulp, we all looked awkward and stiff. We stopped once we reached a fifty-foot cliff. Then finally, my vision could let me see, on the other side, a black Humvee completely filled with dust and mud trying to travel through a wild and bumpy road in the forest. Next to me, I could feel Max's alertness. I knew that she knew that Angel was in that same Humvee, on her way to a place we all so desperately want to forget about. And we all knew Max wasn't going to let that happen.

"Let's get her!" she exclaimed, backing up about ten feet. Mimicking her moves, we all ran towards the edged and fell towards the vehicle containing the sixth member of our flock. We then unfurled our wings, wincing a bit as they were caught in the wind.

And we soared through the skies.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: By now, I hope you guys realize I'm trying to correspond all the chapter number with the real ones from the series, a gift for those of you who PM saying how they're reading along with the book, which I would definitely do, too. LOL. Yeah, so that's the whole reason behind the smaller chapter. But smaller chapters mean more of them, so I guess it's a win some, lose some kind of situation. EPIC WIN!_**

**_Iggy: No, epic fail. _**

**_Me: You fail at life. _**

**_Fang: Your mom fails at life. _**

**_Me: The UD fails at life. _**

**_Fang: ...Touche. _**


	7. Chapter 7: Pursuit

_**A/N: Haha! I am abso-freaking-lutely proud of myself for updating in less than 2 days, hahaha. So you guys should review to reward me, ya know. ;) Anyways, I had a little bit more freedom with this chapter, which is nice. And I didn't feel like I had to keep looking back at the book. This one's definitely a lot more creative and viewpoint-ish. **_

**Chapter 7**

So I guess the secret's out now. (Think back about me telling you that we're only 98% human) And now you know we're part jellyfish. Haha, just kidding, we're bird kids, or more preferably, Avian-Americans. Yes, I have freaking _wings_, man. All fourteen feet in its glory. Usually, it's pretty cool. Then you think back to all the experiments and the vomiting and the dog crates and suddenly, you feel like it's not what it's cracked up to be. But I have to admit, it would be pretty cool though to be part jellyfish. Then I could sting Iggy whenever he tried to pull pranks on me.

Pushing my wings up and down, we banked towards the black vehicle containing Angel. In a tight formation lead by Max, we headed straight for the Humvee. On the way, I snapped a long branch from a tree, dropped straight down, and jammed it into the front windshield.

"_Hell_, yeah," I could hear Iggy say, following from behind. He probably heard the glass breaking and the car completely swerving around. It was a pretty nice feeling. But our job wasn't over and Angel was still inside. I figured the jerks finally came into their senses and aimed a gun barrel at us. Seconds later, bullets were fired from all around us. Thank God we knew how to evade. I smashed another window with a branch.

_That was for the ten worst years of my life, you twits_, I thought. A bullet then zipped past just above my head. Holy..._muffins_, that was close.

"Angel!" Max shrieked above all the noise. "We're here! We're coming for you!" I looked behind me to trail the path of the mentioned bullet and noticed a clearing about two hundred yards away. I squinted enough, making out the faint outline of a chopper not too far away from here. I looked back at Max.

"Up ahead!" I called and she followed my gaze towards the trees. She met my eyes and we nodded at each other, silently realizing they were going to move Angel to the chopper. Finally, the Humvee's brakes screeched and out came an Eraser. I lunged at him with all the strength I had left. Unfortunately, I started to feel a searing pain on one arm, recoiling to a yell. The Eraser threw me straight to a tree, but I didn't have enough strength to come back at him and just lay there quiet, trying to fight the pain. My arm dripped with blood, but at least the bullet had only grazed me. Otherwise, Iggy would have to pull it out from him later on, and God knows how _that's_ going to end.

I faintly remember leaning against the tree upside down and looking into distance, seeing Max letting the chopper go, with Angel peeping out of it and Ari holding a gun towards her head. He yelled something out to Max but I couldn't make out what he was saying. I gulped realizing Ari was leaving, with the youngest member of the flock. Even though I knew it would hurt, I gulped and a lump formed in my gagging throat. I tried to fight the feeling of my eyes closing shut, and horribly failing.

Angel, the one who was barely two when escaped from the whitecoats.

Angel, the one who I read stories to at night.

Angel, the one who walked in my room in the middle of the night when she was having nightmares.

Angel. Angel. Angel.

"I'm so _so_ sorry, Ange," I whispered softly.

Slowly but surely I drifted into unconciousness, with one single tear escaping from my eye.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: I'm hoping to update by tomorrow night. Have you guys ever realized I never update in normal hours, it's always in the early morning, Eastern time. Like right now, it's almost two in the morning. I have odd sleeping patterns. Hm. Anyway, I'm pretty sure I'll be able to update again really really soon. And guess what? IT'S MY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY. So yeah. I'll treat you all to another update by then. How many times have I used the word update in this paragraph? Ugh, I feel like Nudge...not that it's a bad thing. But then again, it might not be a good thing either. THERE I GO AGAIN! So yeah. ANYway. Hmmm...a little dramatic, don't you think? _**

**_Iggy: *Gasp* Fangy-poo? Dramatic? WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE FANGALATOR?_**

**_Fang: *facepalm*_**


	8. Chapter 8: Departure

**Chapter 8**

_I was mindlessly watching TV, sprawled out on the couch with Max when she looked at me with a thoughtful expression. I met her gaze and nodded at her as if to say, "What's up?" even though we both knew what was up. It was two in the morning and Jeb was still not back home. We had decided to stay up and wait. Jeb had never been gone this late before and we knew something was up. She sighed._

_"You know what," Max said. I nodded in agreement._

_"He'll come back. He has to," I replied with a half-smile so convincing I almost fooled myself. I knew he wasn't coming back and for some reason I had half-expected this day would have come eventually. But she didn't need to know that. She had enough on her mind. I leaned in and kissed her forehead. She smiled back and leaned on my shoulder and continued to watch TV and we both eventually drifted off to dreamland._

I finally woke up to a familiar voice closeby. My eyes shot open, realizing that I had been knocked unconscious for who knows how long. Blinking, I saw Gazzy pounding his bloody fists onto the dirt. His eyes were stained with tears; mix it up with even more dirt and blood and you got yourself a pretty depressing image of the messed up life of an eight-year-old. I winced in pain as I used my arms to steady myself up and kneel beside poor Gazzy, wrapping one arm around his shoulder.

"Shhh, it's going to be okay. We're going to get her back. And that's a promise," I reassured, soft enough so only he could hear me. Gazzy stopped pounding his fist and buried his face in his palms again, his shoulders slightly shaking. I looked back up and eyed the rest of the flock. Max was staring off into the distance, her back turned to me. Iggy was staring off into space, one of his eyes completely black and his lip had been cut, making it swell. Nudge was looking at Max, her eyes searching for answers. She was still crying and her fists were clenching and unclenching. She must have said something to set off Max because before we knew it, she pushed herself off from the ground, shooting up from the sky until we couldn't even see her anymore, even with our raptor vision.

Nudge sat down next to Gazzy and I and wrapped her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth, with tears still fighting to come out. By now, Iggy had followed the sound of muffled sniffling and joined our circle. We sat in silence for a few minutes as I contemplated on what just happened the last half hour.

"So...what now?" Iggy said emotionless. He stared at my general direction.

"No point waiting for Max," I replied. "Let her think. For now, we go back home and regroup." Everyone nodded and shakily stood back up. Then one by one, we ran towards the nearest clearing and shot up the ground.

Few minutes later, we arrived home, minus two.

Our leader MIA and our youngest kidnapped by the most ruthless creatures on Earth.

Plain dandy.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Gotta love the sarcasm here, folks. Sorry this was so short, but hey, I just updated like 12 hours ago so don't hate! I may be able to update tonight again if I get the chance. Most likely I will. Yay for all us!**_

_**Iggy: How come Mr. Emotionless Brick gets a POV and I don't? Hmph. **_

_**Fang: That's cause I'm special. **_

_**Iggy: Go away. **_

_**Me: Sigh...boys. **_


	9. Chapter 9: Reality Hits

**Chapter 9**

We didn't exactly feel like going inside our house, in silent fear that we'd see something that will remind us of Angel. In short, we waited for Max so that we all walked in together. About an hour later, she dropped down our house and silently lead us inside. We sat there in silence while I went to work on bandaging my _still_ bleeding hand, cursing the Erasers under my finally started to move when Max suddenly tensed up, and I realized she was staring at Angel's empty breakfast plate.

I leaned on the nearest wall, crossing my arms. Countless thoughts swirled in my head but only one kept echoing back in my head.

_How could we let this happen?_

Sure everyone was upset about this, how could we not? But being second oldest, I couldn't help but feel guilty that this was all my fault. I guess this was why I knew how Max felt all the time. So many emotions, thoughts, and feelings at the same time welled up inside me and I didn't know how I'll be able to contain it at all. I was _this_ close from going over the edge.

Somehow on cue, something hard hit the side of my head and I looked down to see a broken mug on the ground._ As if my head wasn't ringing enough_. I was frustrated and sick and tired and it all just needed to freaking end. Yeah, yeah, yeah call me a whiny baby. _Shut up_. Like you knew how it felt. Something inside me chose to boil up at that moment. Before I knew it, my head snapped up, complete aggravation flaring in my eyes.

"Watch it, idiot!" I yelled and it took me a moment to realize that I was yelling at Iggy. Realizing what I said, I clenched my teeth, looked back at Max, rolling my eyes. And it hit me, finally that Max, was _crying_.

Max _never_ cried.

None of us ever do. She returned my glare, knowing that I knew that she was crying and moved away from her position to take care of the younger ones. My eyes went back to glaring at Iggy.

"_You_ watch it!" he yelled back. "What _happened_? I mean, you guys can _see_, can't you? Why couldn't you get Angel?"

"They had a chopper! And guns! We're not bulletproof!" Gaz shouted, taking the words right out of mind. He wriggled out of Max's reach and crossed his arms.

"Guys, guys! We're all upset. But _we're_ not the enemy! _They're_ the enemy!" Max cut in, sticking a Band-Aid on one of Gazzy's many cuts. "Just-be quiet for a minute so I can think."

Iggy moved away and went to comfort Nudge. But my stomach had different ideas as it growled. Quietly, I walked across the kitchen to the cupboard and grabbed the first can in sight, which happened to be ravioli. I clumsily stabbed a fork in it with my bandaged hand and shoved it in my mouth. I guess fights to death really take it out on ya.

"You know, if they just wanted to kill her, or kill all of us, they could have," Nudge chirped, sitting upright. "They had _guns_. They wanted Angel _alive_ for some reason. And they didn't care if _we_ were alive or not. I mean, they didn't go out of their way to make _sure_ we were dead, is what I'm saying. So that makes me think we have time to go after Angel again."

Thinking about it, Nudge may actually be up to something. Hm.

"But they were in a chopper," the Gasman reasoned. "They're way gone. They could be anywhere. Like China or something."

And then, it hit me.

Tensing up, I slowly turned around to face everyone. Max went over and ruffled Gazzy's hair. "I don't think they took her to China, Gazzy," she said calmly. Calmer than she should have. There was nothing calm about where they took her. Not at all.

"We know where they took her," I said seemingly calm, but really I felt stiff and annoyed that I knew. Still in my hands, I scraped the bottom of the can of ravioli with my fork.

"Where's that?" Iggy asked, making me sigh, because I _really_ didn't want to answer it and face the truth. His eyes were bloodshot, on the brink of tears. Saying it aloud will make it more of a reality.

"The School," Max and I said in unison. But the reality is here and it's happening now. I took a deep breath.

Might as well face it.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: There you go! Another chapter! I know, I know, I said I'd update on Friday but it was my birthday and turns out this weekend was busier than I thought. Family party and a christening which were superbly long. Sorry again! And right now, I'm even in a hurry, too. _**


	10. Chapter 10: Old Files

**Chapter 10**

As expected, there was an uneasy silence in the mention of the School. I mean, our childhood was pretty much filled with scarring memories of horrible experiment because of them. _NBD_, as Nudge would put it.

"They took Angel back to the School?" the Gasman asked.

"I think so," Max answered trying to keep her cool, even though I was the only who could tell that she was having panic attacks inside. That's Max for ya.

"Why?" Nudge said softly. "After four years, I thought maybe they had forgotten-"

"They want us back," I said curtly. We only wished that they forgot about us. But I don't think it'll be easy to forget about the six most successful avian hybrids ever who escaped four years ago. Again, I thought, NBD.

Gosh, now that I think about it, the story of our whole lives could be sarcastically ended with NBD. Which is really pathetic, I know.

Oh, yeah, Iggy's blind 'cause they operated on his eyes. _NBD_.  
>Max, Iggy, and I have been experimented on 'til we were ten. <em>NBD<em>.  
>We have freaking wings. Wait for it and-<em>NBD. <em>

It's like our lives were _meant_ to be a sick and twisted joke.

And let me tell you, it's no walk in the park.

"They'll never forget about us," Max interrupted my thoughts. "Jeb wasn't supposed to take us out of there." I could feel the darkness in Max's voice.

"Jeb knew they would do anything to get us back. If anyone ever discovered what they did to us, it would be the end of the School," I explained. Hm, that's the longest speech I've said in a while. _Good job, Fang_, I mentally congratulated myself.

Suddenly, I remembered the files that used to be on Jeb's desk. I knew for a fact there was a map in there, and secretly, I read through all those files when everyone else was asleep during the first week Jeb was gone. I figured there was something in there to help me find out where he went. Something in my gut told me he was still out there. Not dead like what everyone thought. Don't get me wrong, I trusted Jeb, but there must have been something that _happened_. Also, it was a precaution in case we needed the information for future use.

But that had been two years ago. When I finally found the files, they were all yellow and faded. The edges looked nibbled and there was some mouse poop on it. Nudge will get a kick out of this.

I returned to the room while the others were planning and they all turned to face me as I walked towards Max. Sure enough, Nudge reacted to the mouse poop.

"Here," I said, back to one-word sentences pushing the papers at Max. She walked over to the kitchen and spread them on the table.

After sifting through the pile for a moment, I finally found what I was looking for. It was a large manila envelope, sealed in wax. Max motioned me to open the envelope and I popped it open with my thumbnail. Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy gathered around me to see what was going on.

"What is that?" the Gasman asked.

"Map," I replied. I pulled out a faded topographical drawing. I knew what was in it, but I never had the chance to study it since no one really knew that I had read over everything. The wax sealed it shut so everyone would be suspicious if it already had been opened. Sure enough it was what we needed, it was the one and only...unfortunately.

"Map of what?" Nudge asked, leaning closer. I could feel Nudge's breath on my neck.

"Map of a secret facility," Max said stiffly. "In California. The School."

Though I've heard the name a thousand times, it still gave me chills.

And the thought of coming back to it, gave me a thousand more.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: HA! I UPDATED TWICE IN ONE DAY. I'M SO PROUD OF MYSELF. SNIFF SNIFF. So listen up guys, I've been thinking of doing another story. I have some few ideas up my sleeve but I was wondering if there's a particular storyline you want me to take a crack at. If I like it, I may just do it. :DD So yeah, PM, review, do SOMETHING. But I am NOT doing any Mylan or Miggy stories. Because I'm a trueblue Fax fan. Sorry. :)_**

**_Iggy: For once, I agree. I mean, Max and I? Talk about ew. _**

**_Max: HEY! What's wrong with being with me!_**

**_Iggy: NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! IT'S JUST THAT...UM...WELL, THERE'S...ELLA. _**

**_Max: ARE YOU SAYING ELLA IS EASY? *shoots lasers from eyes*_**

**_Iggy: NO, NO. SHE'S HARD. I MEAN-SHE'S SOFT. WAIT WHAT? I'M SO CONFUSED. *mumbles* She's probably on her period or something.. *mumbles*_**

**_Max: WHAT DID YOU SAY?_**

**_Iggy: Uh, I said there was a MYRIAD of birds...OVER THERE! YEAH, THAT'S IT. BYE! *backs away slowly then runs* _**

**_Max: Sigh, boys. _**


	11. Chapter 11: Left Behind

**Chapter 11**

"Whaaat?" the Gasman squeaked. Each and everyone of us, including yours truly, suddenly felt uneasy about the situation.

"That's where they took Angel," Max said. "And that's where we have to go to get her back."

"Oh," said Nudge. "Yeah. We have to go get Angel back. We can't let her stay there-with th-" I tuned her out, carefully studying the map. By the looks of it, it was going to be a long flight. But at this point, I didn't care. It was necessary and I knew Max felt the same way. Finally, I heard Nudge penetrate my thoughts. "Uh, how far is it?"

"Six hundred miles, more or less," Fang said. "At least a seven-hour flight, not including breaks." It seemed even more of a stretch, now that it came out of my mouth.

"Can we discuss this?" Iggy asked. "We're way outnumbered."

"No," Max said bluntly. For Max, it was out of the question. We were going, whether we liked it or not. She pushed me gently out of the way, as she looked at the tattered map, probably figuring out which route we would take.

"Can we take a vote? They had guns. And a chopper," Iggy tried to reason. It was actually surprising Iggy felt this way. After everything we've been through, I would think he would feel the same way we all did.

"Iggy. This is not a democracy," Max said firmly, her patience completely running out by the second. "It's a Maxocracy. You know we have to go after Angel. You can't be thinking that we would just let them take her. The six of us look out for one another - no matter what. None of us is ever going to live in a cage again, not while I'm alive." Taking a deep breath, she continued.

"But actually, Nudge, Fang, and I are going after Angel. You and the Gasman - I need you to stay here. Hold down the fort. On the off chance Angel escapes and makes her way home."

Silence reeked in the atmosphere. And a three, two, one...

"You are so full of it," said Iggy, his teeth clenched. "That's not why you want us here. Why don't you just say it?"

As the rest of the flock bickered, I decided to organize the papers again, contemplating whether to take them with us or not. No one noticed that I left the room and I didn't bother to listen to the rest of their arguments. We all knew what was going to happen, Max was going to get her way one way or the other so there was no point staying and wasting precious time.

I slipped into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Dried blood drained into the sink. Looking at myself in the reflection, the cuts and bruises were still present, but slowly but surely, they'll eventually disappear over the course of the next few days. Let's hear it for super-healing, eh?

I walked across the hallway and went inside mine and Iggy's room. He was already on his bed, with one arm resting on his forehead, sulking. He sighed dramatically. Oh, jeez.

I tried to pretend that he wasn't in the room and grabbed some clean clothes in my closet. Again, he sighed dramatically.

I turned around and glared at him, which in retrospect would be useless towards him. But I digress. "What?"

"Am I really that useless that I can't come? Is that what Max really thinks of me?"

Even though Iggy was a really great flyer, Max had a point of leaving him behind. Yes, it was degrading and flat-out humiliating, but when push comes to shove, I'd rather he be sulking than being completely lost out there.

"Nah, Ig. You know you're not. Our kitchen would be burned to the crisp if you weren't here and Max had to cook. Plus, I don't think I could name any other blind pyro who'd be able to make a bomb out of anything," I smiled.

"I guess you're right. It's still stupid, though," he frowned. "But nevertheless, good luck, man."

I started to lace up my sneakers when suddenly Iggy sat up again. "Hey, Fang? Do me a favor."

"What?"

"Don't die." I rolled my eyes.

"Wouldn't dream of it, Igs." He grinned and left the room. Which got me thinking.

_What if I did? _

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: DUN. DUN. DUUUUUUUUUUN. **_

_**Okay, so I'm in the midst of writing a new fanfic. It only has a working title, but right now it's called New Divide. It's going to be AH, and it'll be about two best friends who move away from each other and try to work out having a long-distance friendship. Yeah, I'm really bad at summaries. BUT STILL. **_

**_Anyway, I'm sorry about the crappy quality of this chapter. I didn't have a lot of freedom with this one. But don't worry, I'll try to update a lot more often. Keep checking back!_**

**_Iggy: I still can't believe you guys are leaving me. *grumble grumble* What happened to no man left behind? _**

**_Max: Which man are you referring to?_**

**_Flock: OHHHHH, YOU JUST GOT BURNED. _**


	12. Chapter 12: On The Way

**Chapter 12**

"We clear on Plan B?" Max asked faintly. I knew it was really hard to be heard in the skies, what with the wind blowing at us at ninety miles an hour and all, so her screaming was completely muffled over.

I nodded, not really feeling the energy to attempt at yelling her back. We were flying in a V-formation, Max was in front, I was on her left and Nudge was on the opposite side. It felt slightly empty without the other three, but I knew the dangerous implications if they were to be here, so I tried to shake the feeling off.

"Uh-huh," I heard Nudge say and continued on with one of her never-ending monologues. We were on our way to Death Valley, where the School was located. I guess by picking the location_ Death Valley._**  
><strong>

Because antiseptic and dog crates sure scream _welcoming _and _warmth_. Talk about dreadful.

I flapped and pushed down against the air, trying to stay aloft at the same height. It was wonderful up here, almost made up for a disturbing childhood. _Almost_. I felt at peace here, with nothing but the air below me and nothing but blue sky up ahead. This, this is what it's all about, I thought. Flying was where I was happiest. No scratch that, flying with the _Flock_ is where I was happiest at.

A small, pleasant half-smile creeped on my face. God, there was just nothing like flying. Sucks for the 100% humans who were always on foot.

I felt someone's stare seeping at me, and shot a sideways glance to my right. Sure enough, I saw Max eyeing me. Hm, I wonder what's on _her _mind. Then, she spoke not even a second after.

"And on the plus side, flying is just really, really cool," she smiled and I returned it halfway, my eyes filled with understanding. I wonder how she did that, read my mind. We were always on the same wavelength, Max and I. Almost as if, we didn't didn't Angel to literally go telepath on us. She had a puzzling look on her face, and went on.

"On the minus side, we're mutant freaks who will never live a normal life."

I shrugged. "Win some, lose some."

After giving me a wry smile, she looked back at Nudge, who looked completely in deep though. Something I tended to worry about whenever she did.

Nudge may talk a lot, but she seems to think just as much. I don't know how many times I've caught her in her sleep, frowning. Or stare into space while watching TV. It was like the girl was trying to figure out the meaning of life or something.

_"Hey Fang?" Nudge asked, scooting closer to me on my side of the couch. Max was doing the laundry, Iggy was cleaning up at the kitchen, and Gazzy and Angel were already setting up for bed. It was a quiet night. Something we started to get used to the past month. _

_Ever since Jeb used to. _

_I turned to face her, giving her my full attention. _

_"Do you-do you really think," she hesitated, her eyes were filled with utter curiosity. "That Jeb is really...you know, dead? I mean, he just left out of the blue. Like, POOF. Gone. I mean, what if he was alive? What if he didn't mean to leave us?" she gasped. "What if he was kidnapped? OR ABDUCTED? BY ALIENS FROM ANOTHER PLANET? But no seriously though, what do you think?" She looked at me with wide, thoughtful eyes. _

_I sighed. At first I wanted to say, "Well someone's been watching too many alien movies. But then I wanted to say, "NO, COMPLETE BS. THAT SON OF A B***** IS SOMEWHERE OUT THERE. BS, I SAY, AS EVIDENCE TO HIS MISSING SUITCASE AND HALF OF HIS CLOTHES MISSING!" _

_But I didn't. Because only I knew about the suitcase. Not even Max. At twelve, Max took over as the parental figure of the flock with the confidence of freaking, I don't know, a really really confident person. It was already enough for a pre-teen, let alone a motherly pre-teen. So I figured I didn't need to tell her, didn't have the heart to. She didn't need any more worry and disappointment in her life. There's already enough to go around._

_"Um, I don't know, Nudge. We'll never really know," I lied, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear. "I guess we'll find out one day..."_

_She seemed skeptical of my answer, not really sure whether to believe me or not but thankfully, she dropped the subject. _

_"O-kaaayyyy..." she said slowly, warily standing up, giving me one quick goodnight hug and running off. I was about to breath a sigh of relief, when suddenly her tan head popped out from around the corner. "Oh, yeah. Night Fang. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite. But you could probably take bedbugs, I mean, you'd just kill them by squishing them. And you're probably not scared like Max is of snakes. Did you know that? Did you know that she was scared of snakes. But you probably knew that already. Since you guys are best friends and all. Which I think is cool, it's like me and Angel, you know?"_

_I blinked twice, trying to soak in everything she just said. So Max hates snakes, huh? Hm, I better talk to Iggy about what we can do with that. Heh, heh. I blinked again and finally snapped back to reality. "Oh yeah, I know. A'ite, night Nudge. Go to sleep."_

_And with that she grinned and left, leaving me to wonder about one person._

_Max._

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Yeah, I didn't exactly end at this one. Alright, three in the morning and I'm wide awake. What was wrong with me? Oh right, for some stupid reason, I'm grounded. UNTIL THE DAY SCHOOL FREAKING STARTS A MONTH AND A HALF AWAY FROM NOW. F MY LIFE. 'Cause it totally makes sense to ban computer use after forgetting to not wipe off a puddle of water on the kitchen counter, RIGHT? 'Cause apparently, my dad's just funny that way. And blamed it on me rebelling or something. AHAHAHAHA, not. Yeah, so I'll try to sneak in a few chapters every now and then but I won't be sure about the consistency of the updating. REALLY REALLY SORRY. I hope you enjoyed this though. Thank you for reading my rant. *Salute* The following is the exact conversation we had, I kid you not, as father and daughter. **_

_**Gazzy: *mimicking Asian father* WHAT'S THIS? A PUDDLE? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? HUH? (INSERT UNNECESSARY SWEAR WORD HERE)**_

_**Me: Uhh...I'm sorry?**_

_**Gazzy: DAMN RIGHT YOU'RE SORRY. WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL DAY? CHATTING WITH YOUR FRIENDS AGAIN? (SWEAR WORD)-ING FACEBOOK?**_

_**Me: No. I was reading. **_**(It's true, I've been only reading fanfiction that's it...and did the laundry...the dishes and every other [swear word]-ing chore to begin with as I always do)**

_**Gazzy: OH, OKAY. I SEE HOW IT IS. TALKING BACK NOW. AND NOW YOU THINK IT'S OKAY TO JUST READ ALL THE TIME. AND FORGOT ABOUT (SWEAR WORD)-ING CHORES, HUH? **_**(raises octaves gradually)**

_**Me: I'm sorry... (cue annoyed but terrified welling of tears)**_

_**Sigh. My life is depressing. **_


	13. Chapter 13: Lukewarm Soda

**Chapter 13**

"You think she's okay?" Max asked, swooping in beside me. Her hair was rushing past her, as she looked at me for an answer.

"Will you relax?" I reassured. "She'll be fine."

Max gave me a worried smile and looked back ahead, not exactly convinced with my answer. Who could blame her? I was still trying to convince myself. Part of me is calm, calmer than humanly possible, since I don't really see the future _without _Angel. It just didn't seem right. But another part of me thought, "_Hey, this is the School we're talking about. You know, the one that screwed you over the first decade of your life? That School?_" And when I listen to that, I begin to worry.

At that moment, my stomach started growling like there was no tomorrow. It took all my self-control to not rub my poor stomach and go "Hush, stomach. Hush." But I would let the girls announce they were hungry first, though I don't think Max would ever admit she was hungry first.

Mentally, I whimpered, leaving all my hope to Nudge now.

"Okay, okay. We need food. Fang! We need to refuel any ideas?" Max said.

Hm, I guess I stand corrected. I thought for a moment, then glancing back down on Earth. Catching sight of a few cabins, my gaze met Max's.

"Ski slopes," she answered, and I nodded. "Summertime. Empty vacation houses.

"Would they have food?" Nudge asked.

"Let's go find out."

After a few circles around the area, we settled on one cabin that seemed vacant. After we landed a couple hundred yards away, Nudge and I followed Max's lead and folded our wings tightly against our body. Creeping through the woods, we realized no one has been around here for a while, judging by the lack of life in the surrounding area.

When we finally got to the house, we looked through the window to check if there were any alarm systems. Max took out her pocketknife (the one Iggy and Gazzy made her by melting down the toaster; needless to say, Jeb wasn't too hot about that) and slid it through the creak of a window. I helped Max shake the window off and climbed in first. Then Nudge. Then finally, Max.  
>And just like that, we were in.<p>

Let's just say, our time there was glorious. Max popped open a couple cans of possibly-expired ravioli. And I found some dusty bottles of lukewarm orange soda.

Yeah, I know, living the dream alright.

After literally chugging down a few bowls of some thick substance that was claiming to be soup, we were all patting our bellies, lying down on the couches.

"Uhhnhh," Nudge moaned. "I feel like concrete."

"Let's take ten, rest a bit" I suggested, wearily drifting off. I crossed my legs, like the macho fourteen-year-old I am and lay back the couch. "Digest a minute, we'll feel better."

"I second that emotion," I faintly heard Max's voice.

But I wouldn't be too sure, because by that time, I was already passed out, dreaming about what I hoped wasn't another Iggy-on-a-unicorn incident.

* * *

><p><em>I woke up hazily, my head was throbbing, and I felt like throwing up my entire digestive system. Sitting upright, at least attempting to, I slowly put one of my hands on my forehead and felt something wet. Ew. Is this blood? Why was it rainbow-colored? <em>

_I glanced down on my clothes, to scan for any other bleeding areas. Wait, why am I wearing pink? I looked back up and my eyes widened with surprise and horror. _

_Where the hell was I?  
><em>  
><em>I was confused.<br>_

_Wait scratch that, understatement of the decade._

_I was absolutely and horrifyingly baffled by my whereabouts. _

_There, that seemed about right. I made a snap decision and tried to stand up. My knees buckled, but after a few tries, I managed to stay perpendicular to the ground.  
><em>  
><em>Out of the blue, and a white figure zipped past me, the wind build-up knocking me right back down. Closing my eyes, I thought. Ughhhh. This was definitely not my day.<br>_  
><em>"You're right. It's not," a familiar voice laughed.<br>_  
><em>When I finally shot my eyes open, I saw a fair-skinned boy with pale hair and pale blue eyes. He grinned at me evilly, his eyes full of mischief. Oh crap.<br>_  
><em>"God, what do you want Iggy? Where am I?" I questioned, completely tired of all this confusion. I had to get back to Max and Nudge. I didn't even know where they were. Please kill me now.<br>_  
><em>"Relax. They're fine. And you don't think I would let you go that easy, Fang, now do you?" Iggy answered, chuckling maniacally. WHAT THE CRAP? HOW IS ANSWERING MY THOUGHTS?<br>_  
><em>"Oh, well, this is a different world. I can do a lot of things I can't normally do. It's actually pretty fun messing around. Especially towards you," he explained. I nodded slowly, trying to comprehend all this. Which brings up the question again, why was I secreting rainbow-colored blood?<br>_  
><em>"That's easy," Iggy said happily. "Because earlier before, I did this."<br>_  
><em>"Whaaa..." I said, completely flustered. "What are you talking ab-"<br>_  
><em>And before I knew it, he raised his arms, ones which were hiding behind him this whole time, and raised what looked like a miniaturized guitar at me. Then I realized what it was specifically.<br>_  
><em>I didn't exactly have time to react, because before I knew it again, he jabbed me with the ukelele right in the gut. My stomach spewed the amazing rainbow liquid again.<br>_  
><em>"Well, it's been fun," Iggy sighed satisfyingly. "See you on the other side, Fangy-poo." By now, the odd blood (haha, that kinda rhymed) was spewing out so much I started to feel woozy. Really, <em>really_, woozy.  
><em>  
><em>And within seconds, all I saw was black.<br>_  
><em>God, so help me.<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: And there you go! Another chapter brought to you by...*drumrolls* FNICKFOREVER. Yep. Sorry I haven't been updating in a while. Remember how my dad grounded me? I don't know, it just kind of got forgotten, so here I am. Writing and stuff. I love love love writing dreams with Iggy in them, they're so fun to right, and I don't even have to make sense because they're dreams after all! Woohoo, yay for randomness! I type too much. Is it possible to get finger cancer? Well, anyway, remember how I said I was writing a new story? I have a chapter done but I haven't uploaded it yet because I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to lay out the story. Just keep checking back, okay? Next chapter for this story should be up in the next couple of days. Thanks for reading my uberly long and unnecessary A/N's!**_

_**Iggy: I like the part where I stab Fangy-poo with a ukelele. Fnickforever, will you marry me?**_

_**Me: *blushes***_

_**Fang: HAHAHAHA, AS IF! WHO WANTS TO MARRY A UKELELE-STABBING, UNICORN-RIDING, BIRD KID?**_

_**Iggy: Uh, who wants to marry a dude with rainbow blood? **_

**_Silence. _**

**_Iggy: Yeah that's what I thought. _**

**_Oh! And I never made a disclaimer. And I always forgot so...here. _**

**_DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MAXIMUM RIDE, JUST THE WORDS I WRITE AND STUFF._**

**_**_UPDATED** Holy muffins...when I was rushing through this chapter, I didn't realize how utterly _revolting _the grammar was. It was hard to look at. I fixed up some of it, however, I can't tamper with it that much, given that many have probably read it already...**


	14. Chapter 14: Sorry, Ange

**Chapter 14**

I woke up at the sound of something dropping on the cold floor with a large thud. I frowned and shifted around in my sleep, as uncomfortable as it was. Now who would disturb my precious sleep?

Then, thought about my nightmare last night about Iggy. It made me wake up, gasping a few hours back. I shuddered. Eventually, I calmed down, but now something else was bothering me. My nose twitched slightly and I sneezed.

"Aghhh-chooo!" I exclaimed, splattering spit all over the couch. Ugh, I'm disgusting. I swung my feet over the edge of the couch.

"What time is it?" I asked to no one in particular.

"Almost morning!" Max said, frustrated. My eyes shot open. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. Dear Lord, don't let karma come get me one day.

I quickly walked over to the kitchen and managed to find a musty-looking backpack from a closet and I randomly filled it up with some cans. Max got to waking Nudge up while I got our supplies ready.

"Fang, you can't carry all that," Max called out, eyeing my backpack. "It'll weigh you down. Nothing's heavier than cans."

I shrugged. Meh. It'll all be worth it in the end. I do enjoy my grub. Pulling the backpack on, I moved quietly across the room and slipped out the window. I could feel Max's glare seeping through my back.

Finally, after a few minutes, I heard shuffling from behind and saw Max shoving Nudge's body through the window. Nudge looked dead with exhaustion. Clearly, she wasn't too hot about waking up. She never really was. The wee hours of the early morning were the rare times that the flock didn't hear a peep from her.

Max followed her shortly and slithered out and propped the screen back in place. Well, tried to.

Running down a nearby dirt road, our wings unfurled and we were airborne. Again.

The worried look on Max's face made me feel so guilty inside that we spent so many hours lounging around when Angel was in the freaking School.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Okay, super SUPER short chapter. It was not even funny how frustrated I was that I didn't know how to add to this. Sorry sorry sorry. I'll make it up to you by updating either tonight or tomorrow, okaayyy? Thanks for reading :D_**

**_Iggy: I'M NOT IN THIS!_**

**_Me: Iggy. You're stuck at home, remember?_**

**_Iggy: Oh. Right. _**


	15. Chapter 15: Admittances

**Chapter 15 (Chapter 18 in the book)**

The distracted look on Max's face the past hour made me feel guiltier than I already was about sleeping in that darn cottage. The sun started rising and Max's shoulders eased up a bit. After a while, she banked, setting us about twelve degrees southwest. I wanted to slap her and say, "Will you take a chill pill?" But I imagined that wouldn't go very well.

"We had to rest," I tried to reason lamely. Okay, it wasn't the best I could come up with. I was still trying to convince myself for gosh sakes!  
>She glared at me. "For ten <em>hours<em>?"

"Today we've got another four hours to go, maybe a bit more," I said. "We couldn't have done it in one shot. It was late when we left. We're going to have to stop again anyway, right before we get there, and refuel."

Yeah, that's it. Now that's a reason. Mentally, I patted myself on my back. Well-done, Fang, well-done. Max gave an exasperated sigh, feeling defeated. She knew I was right and wasn't exactly going to admit that I was right. Max was never the one to admit defeat. As I recall. There were only those rare incidents. Ones that I should have recorded for times like these. And even then, it was kinda...well, extreme.

_"Okay," Max sighed. "Maybe Iggy _should_ cook from now on."  
><em>  
><em>The rest of the flock groaned. Max sat on a chair in the kitchen. Well, what was left of it, to say the least. Iggy was rubbing his temples, pacing around the room. He took this incident a lot harder than everyone else. Nudge and Angel sat quietly in the corner, twiddling their thumbs-Nudge being suspiciously quiet, but I didn't think much of it. Gazzy was kicking around ashes, coughing here and there. He was trying to search through the rubble, to see if anything was even saved, much less edible. As for me, I was leaning on the last surviving wall.<br>_  
><em>"MAYBE!" Iggy yelled. I've never seen him so angry, and so frustrated. He punched the wall I was leaning on, only inches away from my face. "YOU CAN SEE, CAN'T YOU? DO YOU SEE THE RUBBLE? YOU ALMOST BURNED THE HOUSE DOWN." I saw Max flinch, which trust me, she never does. <em>

_But I didn't blame her. Iggy angry made everyone's blood cold. He was always the jokester. The one that would be shrugging it off when things went kablooey. Iggy didn't get mad. _

_Except for now. Since Max had gone too far into Iggy's turf. _

_"MAX!" Iggy continued, raising his hands to make the motion of strangling someone, making me cringe. Then he sighed and fell on his knees, dropping his head on his hands. "At least...it was just the kitchen," he hesitated, resisting the urge to blow up again. "I think it's best you leave the cooking to me now, okay?"_

_Max nodded finally, and kept quiet as she retreated back to her room without a word. _

_"We'll deal tomorrow," I said softly to everyone. "Been a long night."_

_The flock grunted in agreement and softly went to their rooms except for Iggy. _

_"Go on, ahead, Fang." he said, then he gave me a small smile. "I'll be fine."_

_I nodded once and left him alone, heading towards Max's room. I knocked once._

_After a few seconds of no response, I turned the knob and went inside. Max was sitting cross-legged on her bed, playing with her split-ends. _

_"Hey," she whispered, not looking up._

_I chuckled softly, hopping up her bed next to her. "Hey yourself."_

_"Iggy's mad." she said, her voice faltering. _

_"No," I said mockingly, my hand on my heart. "You're kidding."_

_She playfully shoved me sideways, a tiny smile breaking out of her face. It quickly disappeared in a flash and was replaced by a frown. She looked back down. "Stop. Not in a mood."_

_"Hey," I said, lifting up her chin up with my finger to look up at me. "Hey, hey. It's okay. Don't beat yourself up about it. Besides, leave that to Iggy."_

_She glared at me and pushed me off the bed. My face connected with the hardwood floor. Ugh, curse her genetically enhanced strength. "You suck at making people feel better, you know that, right?"_

_Note to self: Don't joke when Max is pissed. _

I shuddered. It was pretty much the first and last time we all saw Iggy angry. And that was almost two years ago! We intended to keep it that way. For a long while, we all stayed quiet.

"We're going to storm the place or what?" I finally asked an hour later.

"Yeah, Max, I was wondering what your plan was," Nudge chimed in, flying closer to Max now. "I mean, there's only three of us and whole bunch of them. And the Erasers have guns. Could we, like, drive a truck through the gates? Or even into a building? Or maybe we could wait till nightfall, sneak in, and sneak out with Angel before anyone notices us."

Nudge smiled, but to her dismay, Max stayed eerily silent. And had her thinking face on. Which was never really good.

Our chances with escape from the School was so slim. No way would the scientists let us get away that easily for the second time. It was a flipping miracle we even got out the first.

She knew it. I knew it. But we were too stubborn to say so.


	16. Chapter 16: Split Apart

**Chapter 16 (Chapter 19 in the book)**

It's been several hours since the cabin incident and we wasted no time resting. All we've done is fly, fly, fly. So I'm not complaining.

"Gosh, I wonder what Iggy and the Gasman are doing now?" Nudge asked. "Maybe they got the TV working again. i hope they don't feel too bad. It would have - I mean, I guess it's kind of easier for them to be home. But I bet they're not cleaning up or getting wood or doing any of their chores."

Max frowned, no doubt also wondering the same thing. She stayed silent, not answering Nudge's babbling. I followed her gaze, which was directed to...a girl. Surrounded by a few guys. Big guys, by the look of it. At that point, I knew exactly what Max was thinking. And there was no way in _hell_, was she going down there and help. Sure, I'll feel guilty now, but it'll shrug off a couple hours from now. She was the one who even said so in the first place. We were on a _schedule_. Someone is counting on us to get somewhere. We were already late.

Did I mention this was a life-or-death situation? 'Cause that fact seemed to be overlooked right now.

Don't say anything, I chanted in my head. _Don't say anything, don't say anything, don't say any-_

Max turned to me. Before she could say anything, I interrupted her.

"No," I said bluntly. Her glare seeped into me and I tried hard not to shiver at it. Looking back at Max, her eyes narrowed. She opened her mouth again.

"No."

"Meet me at the northernmost point of Lake Mead," she said.

"What? What are you talking about? Nudge asked. "Are we stopping? I'm hungry again."

"Max wants to go be Supergirl, defender of the weak," I spat. Why is she even _thinking _about considering this?

"Oh."

Max started a wide circle to set her up for going back to that random girl.

"Oh! Max, remember when you got that little rabbit away from the fox, and we kept it in a carton in the kitchen, and then when it was well you let it go? That was cool," Nudge paused. "Did you see another rabbit?"

"Kind of. It'll take two seconds."

* * *

><p><p>

**_A/N: BAM. ANOTHER CHAPTER. THOUGH REALLY SHORT. UM. YEAH. DON'T KILL ME. I'M HITTING A FANG-POV WRITER'S BLOCK. IDEAS, GUYS? HELP :(_**

**_Iggy: What about more of me? -heh, heh-_**

**_Me: You're still at home. So, no. _**


	17. Chapter 17: Food for Thought

**Chapter 17**

After half an hour, my worrying instinct started kicking in. Of course, I didn't let Nudge know that. Like I needed her to start babbling about what would happen if Max never met back with us. Once, when I was in town to pick up some supplies, I saw a poster that said_ Keep Calm and Carry On_. So that should apply right now. I knew Max enough to know she'll come back as fast as she can, and all we had to do was wait for her to show up. I remember back to only a couple days ago, when I awoke with Iggy in our room. Technically, it was my room. He moved in after Gazzy and him accidentally set off a stink bomb in their own room. The Gasman was able to handle the stench but surprisingly, it drove Iggy nuts.

And much to my dismay, he burst in my room with a bucket of paint that day yelling at the top of his lungs.

_"HEY FANGLES!" Iggy greeted loudly, bursting through my door carrying a bucket of paint labeled "Coral Blush." At the time, I didn't know what that was. Sadly, I was about to find out. Iggy skipped inside the room and locked the door. Uh oh. "WE'RE GONNA BE ROOM BESTIES. YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?" He smiled an evil grin as he drummed his fingers against the lid of the can._

_"Wait...what?" I asked, absolutely confused._

_"It means," Iggy said, with a "duh" tone. "That we get to redecorate! LET'S GET RID OF ALL THE BLACK, SHALL WE?"_

_And before I could react, he opened the lid and dumped the contents of the bucket on my head. Realization dawned at me that "Coral Blush" was just the Home Depot word for "PUKE-WORTHY PINK."_

_I hope Iggy was working on his fighting, because at this point, I was not exactly sure he would live to see another minute. Wiping paint off my face, I glared at Iggy, which sadly, was a total waste on him. He heard the satisfying flick of my hand (in an attempt to reduce the pink on my skin) and skipped off._

_"I SWEAR TO GOD, IGGY, YOU BETTER RUN," I shrieked, whipping my door open. Max had the room right next to me and as soon as she caught a glimpse of me, she burst out laughing. With one icy glare, she swallowed her chuckles and realized how pissed I was. "AND MAX, DON'T YOU DARE TRY AND STOP ME!"_

_I stormed out of the house, sure that Iggy would undoubtedly leave the house. But one angry Fang would find him within seconds. Sure enough, I did. He wasn't flying, but instead was in the middle of a full-on sprint, laughing like a maniac. Don't underestimate a blind guy's speed. And after years of experience of trying to run away from Erasers back in the School, he'd grown to be faster than the average teenager._

_Luckily, I was pretty experienced myself. It didn't do him justice that he was idiot enough to forget all of us had wings. So I easily caught up to him, flying low on the ground, and pinned him down. His laughing decreased and a look of fear was in his eyes._

_"Yeah, be scared," I hissed._

_Annoyingly, before I could personally rearrange Iggy's organs, Max swooped just in time to pry me from Iggy._

_"LET ME AT HIM, MAX," I yelled, trying to break free of her free. Note to self: _Dang_, Max was strong._

_"No," she said quietly._

_"Come on, just one lit-"_

_"No."_

_"He dumped fu-"_

_"I said no, Fang."_

_"But _Max_," I started, forgetting that Max despised that phrase._

_"DON'T BUT MAX ME!" she yelled, finally snapping, shoving her pointer finger in the middle of my chest. "STOP ACTING LIKE A KID, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! YOU'RE WORSE THAN ME!"_

_Iggy snickered but stopped when Max whipped her head around, fuming._

_"AND YOU!" she yelled, walking towards Iggy and flicking his head. "Are you _trying_ to set yourself up for a death sentence? Can you stay in trouble for just one day? _God_, you know how Fang is." My tantrums weren't _that_ bad, were they?_

_Before we knew it, Max turned back on the both of us, muttering to herself as she made a running start to lift herself off the ground. Her muttering turned to little piercing shrieks. Something along the lines of, "AM I THE ONLY FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD HERE? GOD."_

"Fang? I'm really hungry, you know?" Nudge said, interrupting my flashback of our happy mutant family. I nodded and motioned my head towards some cliffs.

Quietly, I made my way to one of the cliffs and landed towards a darker area, following Nudge. She sat on the ground cross-legged, breathing a little raggedly. I took off my backpack to see what I could possibly feed her and handed her a bag of dried fruit.

"Oh, yes, yes," she said while I rummaged through the backpack. Let's see granola bars, nut bars, fruit ba_-found it._

I waved a chocolate bar in front of her face, knowing she'd go _nuts_ over it. Haha, nuts? Get it? And chocolate...never mind.

"Oh, Fang, where did you find this?" she said, completely grateful. "You must have been hiding it-you didn't say anything, and all this time you've had _chocolate_, and oh, God, it's so good..."

I gave her a little smile-partly because of her reaction and partly because it was such a that's-what-she-said moment-and sat down. I bit into my own chocolate and savored every last bite, not knowing when the next time I'll be eating.

"So where's Max?" Nudge asked. "Why'd she go down there? Shouldn't she be back by now? Aren't we supposed to go all the way to Lake Mead? What are we gonna do if she doesn't come back soon-"

I interrupted her politely by raising one hand. Nudge was such a sweet girl, but if it was Iggy, I would have slapped him across the face without a second thought. Yup, that's what all the best friend mutants do these days. Haven't you heard?

"Max saw someone in trouble, down below, and went to help," he said in his quiet, deliberate voice. "We'll wait here for her; Lake Mead is right below us."

As Nudge pondered, I thought about five things:

1) Where the hell was Max?

2) How were Iggy and Gazzy back in Colorado?

3) What if Max takes forever? Do we go ahead with the plan ourselves?

4) What if Max doesn't come back at all?

5) Never say you have five things to say when you only have four.

Once again, Nudge had interrupted my thoughts, standing up warily. "Uh, _Fang_?"

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: I am quite sorry about not uploading for a few days, but fear not! I shall update again tomorrow. What'd you think of this chapter? It was a little ehh. I need to get back in the writing zone. I just love writing with Iggy's character the most, I don't know why. Same goes for loving to draw Gazzy and loving to obsess about Fang. The boys in the Flock are so awesome!**_

_**Iggy: YEAH WE ARE. Me, mostly though. **_

_**Me: -facepalm-**_


	18. Chapter 18: Hawks

**Chapter 18**

What now? I mentally groaned, as Nudge called my name to my attention. I was slightly miffed she disturbed my joys of this chocolate bar. I walked out to stand next to Nudge. About to ask what she wanted, I followed her petrified gaze that were on some large birds. I stood perfectly still, not really wanting to be birdmeat. Or in our case, inside out birdmeat.

There was a huge nest, with small fledglings and two larger birds that I assumed were the parents. The larger ones were staring us down with their icily cold eyes.

"What are they?" Nudge whispered to me, trying not to move to much.

"Ferruginous hawks," I answered softly. "Largest raptor in the States. Sit down, very slowly. No sudden movements or we're both bird feed."  
>Nudge followed and sat down painstakingly slow.<p>

"Do you think-" Nudge began but stopped once she understood my signal to shut up. I lowered myself next to her, still keeping my eyes on the hawks, who were taking a part of poor gopher. Well, that's lovely. Slowly, I extended one of my wings, black feathers in all its glory. All the hawks stopped what they were doing and turned their heads to me. Talk about awkward.

"I'm letting them catch my scent," I explained to Nudge quietly, being oh so careful to not make any sudden movements. After a while, the hawks became less tensed and continued their activities, feeding the young ones a snake.

"Eew," Nudge whispered, absolutely disgusted by the hawks' ways. I couldn't help but grin at her expression. She was shocked at first, but then smiled back at me.

"Angel's _waiting _for us," Nudge said. "I mean, she's like a little sister, like everyone's little sister." She stood up and brushed some dirt of her legs. "At night, when we're supposed to be asleep, me and Angel talk and tell jokes and stuff." She stared at me with sad eyes. "I mean, am I going to have to sleep in that room alone, whenever we get home? Max has to come back. She wouldn't let Angel go, right?"

"No," I said. "She won't let Angel go. Look-you see how that big hawk, the one with the dark stripe on its shoulders - you see how he seems to move one wing faster than the other when he banks? It makes his bank really tight and smooth. We should try it."

I was desperate to change the subject, because I wouldn't even let myself think of the possibility Max would not show up. She was Max. She would. There were no doubts. She was going to come.

Nudge looked at me for a few seconds, looking like she was debating on pressing the matter, but shrugged it off. "Yeah, I see what you mean..."

Before she could say anything more, I ran lightly toward the edge of the cliff, and leaped off, just like in my dreams. My wings caught the air and preventing me from free-falling further. I flew closer to where the hawks were flying in a circle, analyzing their every move. They seemed so dang _graceful_. It made us look like, like, Erasers with wings (like that would ever happen).

Imitating the hawks, I made my way past Nudge again, leveling with the cave. "Come on! Try it! You'll fly better."

I saw her sigh, brush off something on her shirt, and leaped off the cliff as well. She flew herself up next to me and I demonstrated the hawks' banking moves. She copied my movements and she seemed pleased with herself, practicing a little bit more.

It reminded me of the days when Angel was still learning how to fly.

_"Come on, Ange," Max encouraged. Angel was on the ground, dirt in her clothes, and her face beading with sweat. "Just run about 30 feet and unfurl your wings. Not so bad."  
><em>  
><em>Angel huffed, standing up and brushing dirt off her shirt.<br>_  
><em>"Why can't we push her off the roof like you did to me?" Gazzy huffed, crossing her arms.<br>_  
><em>"Because Angel's Angel. Now deal with it," Max said, a little frustrated. Gotta love her snappy comebacks. They were extra snappy when she couldn't think of a good reason. Truth be told, we all knew she had too big of a soft spot for Angel to push her off the roof.<br>_  
><em>The flock turned their attention to Angel again as she positioned herself to begin her running start. I noticed this time, she took a deep breath before starting and she had that determined look in her eyes-one not different from Max-which she was lacking before. Running across the field, she jumped, unfolding her wings and staying aloft for the first time.<br>_  
><em>Needless, to say, the flock cheered, and Max had that sparkle in her eye proud moms get when their children accomplish great things.<em>

That night, Nudge was lying down next to me, watching the hawks as they groomed their young. She sniffled.

"What?" I asked unnecessarily, since the look in her eyes were a dead giveaway.

"These birds," Nudge said, wiping her eyes. "Like, these dumb hawks have more of a mom than I ever had. The parents are taking care of the little ones. No one ever did that for me. Well, besides Max. But she's not a mom."

"Yeah. I get it." I said, not daring to look at her. It was always heartbreaking to see the little ones cry-as it took so much emotion to do so.  
>Eventually, I edged loser to Nudge for warmth and she did the same. I held out my fist and she stacked hers on top of it. It was the flock's secret handshake.<p>

"Night," she whispered.

"Night, Nudge," I whispered. The sooner she slept, the better. As it would be hard to tell if would break down or not, something I wasn't too keen on any members of the flock seeing.

After a while, I lay down next to her and slowly drifted off to sleep.

_"ZOMG. YOU'RE BACK!" a voice squealed. I turned my head to all directions, trying to see where the voice was coming from. When my shoulders started to get less tense, a person wrapped their arms around me, enclosing me in a tight embrace. Please don't be Iggy. Please don't be Iggy. Please don't be Iggy. "FANGY, WHY YOU LOOK SO SAD! IGGY HERE!"_

_I sighed. Sometimes I regret sleeping. I really do. "Iggy?"_

_"What?"_

_"Get the hell away from me."_

_"But Fangy, I can't."_

_"Why not?" I asked, a little annoyed at this point. _

_"Because it's almost time for the wedding, silly! You have to get into your dress, QUICK"_

_"I'm getting MARRIED?"_

_"Obviously. Now shoo! Don't let me see you in your dress!"_

_My head was spinning, and since there really wasn't a point to trying to run away, I decided to see where this was going. "Why can't you see me?"  
>"Silly Fangles, don't you know it's bad luck for the groom to see the dress?"<em>

_Cue silence. "WHAT?" **(pic on profile)**_

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: WABAM! Another chapter. Hope you guys review and enjoy this one! Mwahahaha, I kept to my word ;)_**


	19. Chapter 19: Cliffside

**Chapter 19**

I woke up, my breath slightly ragged. Remembering my nightmare, I silently groaned. Did I like my _interesting _dreams? No. Did my subconscious understand that? Again, no. Sometimes it bothered me, not knowing what I could have possibly done wrong to deserve these dreams. But then again, I'm pretty sure my conscience was telling me that Iggy was out to get me one of these days. One of these days, I'm afraid one of these dreams will come true one day. Yes, my friends, I will now forever live in fear of tying the knot with Iggy. As creepy as that sentence seriously sounds. I decided there was no point trying to get back to sleep again, thinking Iggy would probably try and rape me in my next dream. What an image, eh folks?

Standing up, I leaped off the edge of the cliff, unfurled my wings, and circled back to the hawks. Surprisingly, some of them were still awake and were flying around. I flew down side by side with them, mimicking their movements.

It was then I noticed that there were six hawks flying around, three of them being bigger than the others. It kind of reminded me of Max, Iggy, and I, soaring to the skies with Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel.

Angel. How I wished she was okay. Actually let me rephrase that: I hope she hasn't collapsed from the exhaustion the whitecoats were forcing upon her right about now. The thought of her being pushed to the limits ached my heart a bit. It felt like only yesterday that we were all sleeping soundly, safely hidden atop the mountains of Colorado. Something told me that those calm nights were long gone, to become a fleeting memory soon enough.

_My door creaked open slightly and being the light sleeper that I am, my eyes shot open. A small figure with a light-colored head bobbed in. Groggily, I positioned myself upright, squinting at the figure._

_"Oh," I said, rubbing my eyes and yawning. I clicked open the lamp on my bedside table. "Hey, Angel."_

_"Hi," she whispered, clutching a teddy bear to her chest. Now, I could clearly see her light pink pajamas that had a clouds printed all over. "Nudge is sleep-talking again. Something about Paris burning down would be the end of the world."_

_I chuckled and scratched my stomach a bit. Nudge not only did she talk when she was awake, she also chatted it up during her sleep. Sometimes, it kept Angel up and she'd proceed into coming into my room. "I take it you can't sleep?"_

_Angel nodded eagerly and made her way on the other side of my bed. She put down the bear on top of the pillow. With her elbows propped on the mattress, positioned either side of her, she hoisted herself up and wriggled next to me. I smiled softly. I'd never admit that I found it adorable how she was too little for my bed and how she stuck her tongue out to the side when pushing herself upwards. Too cute for words, I say!_

_"I know I am," Angel said, grinning cheekily. _

_"My mind is private, sweetie," I said, kissing her forehead. She inched towards me. "Now go to sleep."_

I smiled at the memory. Angel and I had so many that were similar to these, it hurt to think that we may possibly never have these moments again. I was so channeled in that I didn't realize I was staring at Nudge approaching me until the very last second.

"Morning," I greeted, trying to hide my surprise.

"I'm hungry," she said. I nodded in agreement.

"Town about three minutes away. Follow me." I tilted my body towards the direction of the town without moving my wings. It was sort of like, gliding-something the hawks taught me to do. I had to admit, I felt pretty _badass_. All I needed were black aviator (HA, get it?) sunglasses. But then again, having wings is badass itself.

I noticed a dumpster near a fast-food restaurant and motioned Nudge to it. After checking if the coast was clear, we circle around the area a couple times and headed for the dumpsters.

"Nirvana," I said with a straight face. The dumpster smelled almost as bad as Gazzy's natural scent, but the difference was this one contained edible food. I pawed through the wrapped burgers, all waiting to be digested by a starving winged child. "Burger?"

Nudge surprisingly shook her head. "I don't know-after watching the hawk shredding little animals-oh, but look, here are a couple salads. And some apple pies. Bonus!" She mimicked my pawing and we started stuffing as much food as possible in our windbreakers-something I was so proud of at that moment especially. _Note to self: Windbreakers are _investments_. You never know when you'll need to stock up on week old Big Macs. You never really know. _

Before long, we finished every single edible item that we packed. The cave was now filled with garbage, burger wrappers scattered around the area. Nudge and I watched the hawks for a while. The way they moved and swerved was just so fascinating. "You know, I think the way they swoop and stuff is like a message to the other hawks. Like they're telling them where's the game or where they'll be or something. I haven't figured it out yet. But I will."

"Oh," she replied, and shockingly stayed quiet after that. The silence was a bit uncomfortable, and it felt like Nudge was trying to stay quiet and she was about to burst any second. Sure enough, I was right. "Fang? We just got to go get find Max," she finall said. "Or should we go on and try to find Angel?"

I was only half-listening to Nudge, since the hawks were distracing my attention. Reluctantly, I pulled away my gaze and looked at Nudge, wondering why in the world she would think we could go on without Max.

"We're going to circle back, look for Max. She must have-run into something." She nodded. I stood up, looking down at her, trying not to give away my slight annoyance. "You ready?"

But I didn't give her time to answer. Because by the time her mind reacted to my question, I was already leaping out in the air.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Ha-ha! Another update! I'm terribly sorry I haven't updated in forever. I'm so behind in all my work. I'll be going on vacation and I'm not entirely sure if I'll be able to update this whole week. FOR SURE, I'll have one up by Monday night, you can count on it ;) _**

**_As for my other story, ALW, make sure to read that! I have the same issue with that. Hopefully, I can post a chapter for that later tonight. Really sorry for the inconvenience guys! Thanks for putting up with me ^_^_**

**_Iggy: How come you make me sound so feminine in your stories? -pouts-_**

**_Fang: 'Cause you are. _**

**_Iggy: NO, I'M NOT. _**

**_Fang: YEAH, YOU ARE. NOW GET BACK TO THE KITCHEN. _**

**_Iggy: -grumbles- Fine. _**


	20. Chapter 20: Soaring

**Chapter 20  
><strong>  
><em>Late night flights were always the greatest thing about being a mutant. The skies would be so dark, almost black, you didn't have to worry about people catching a glimpse of yours truly. Back in Colorado, for miles and miles, the only light source you'd get was the moon. <em>  
><em>And sometimes that was more than enough.<br>_  
><em>There were nights when the wind was very strong, but weak enough that you'd still be able to fly. On those nights, you would leap off the roof and let the wind completely carry you out in the moonlit night. You'd enjoy the split second you were free-falling, the cold wind whipping at your face.<br>_  
><em>And all that was left to do was to unfurl your wings, and soar through the skies along with the only five other people you care about in the quiet world that night. And with nothing holding you back, you let go and just fly and fly and fly.<br>_  
><em>In most ways, our life was filled with torture and suffering.<br>_  
><em>But in some ways, our life was something no one else would ever be able to do. We were different. We were special. And those moments would be something you'd never forget.<br>_  
><em>It was those kinds of moments that you forget all the pain and think why this was probably worth all of it.<em>

"Fang? Do you remember where we left Max?" Nudge asked.

"Yes."

"Are we going to go there?" We'd been circling one general area for hours, looking for Max. I avoided the exact location where we left her, too paranoid that someone will see us. The last thing Nudge and I needed was Max chomping our heads off about doing something so stupid. But then again, she was stupid enough to leave us. So I guess that cancels out...kind of.

"Not if we can help it," I said.

"But why? Maybe Max is hurt and needs help," she protested. Mentally, I facepalmed myself. Didn't she think I knew that? I was starting to question the strength of my patience, to be honest. "Maybe we need to save her before we go save Angel."

"I don't think Max would have gotten hurt all by herself," I said slowly. "She's not going to fly into a tree or crash-land. So if she's late because she's hurt, it probably means that someone, a person, hurt her. Which means that someone knows about her. We don't want that someone to know about us, too. Which they would if we went where Max is."

Nudge's jaw dropped, which was absolutely expected, considering I don't really go around elaborating my thoughts and theories. Those were reserved for absolutely necessary times, such as right now. I didn't need Nudge going on and on about this particular topic. Not right now at least. I decided to say a little more to keep her silenced in shock. "And if Max is late because she's busy, then our going with her won't speed things up-she'll come when she's good and ready. So for right now, we do a general look-see. But we're not going all the way back."

There. That should do it. Ah, the ups of being Mr. Silent. It's pretty handy at times. Then I heard Nudge sniffle, which got me totally panicked. Why was she crying? Did I do something? Holy crap, what did I say? If it's my fault and Max finds out...crap crap crap crap cr-

"Fang!" Nudge suddenly yelled, which I just realized was losing altitude fast. "It's Tipisco, down below! I'm going there!"

"No way, Nudge," I said, trying not to show the alarm in my voice. I started to get even more panicked, since this was way worse, and swooped down beside her.

"No!" she said, with an unfamiliar amount of urgeny in her voice. "I have to go find my parents! If Max is gone, I'm going to need someone."

My eyes widened considerably. Surely, she didn't actually think Max was never coming back? "What? Nudge, you're crazy. Come on, let's talk about it," I reasoned. Notice how I said "talk about it." This clearly shows how desperate I was. I suppressed a sigh.

"Let's find a place, take a break."

"No!" she yelled, and secretly I was trying to count how many "no's" we've said the past few minutes. "I'm going down-and you can't stop me!"

And without she aimed downward and sped up.

* * *

><p><p>

**_A/N: WOO! ONE DAY UPDATE! 'CAUSE I'M JUST THAT COOL. I apologize for the shortness of the chapter again. But I still mean the whole vacation thing, I'm in the hotel room right now, thank god for free wi-fi. So I'm quite a happy child. _**

**_Iggy: I'm not in this again. _**

**_Me: -snickers- That's what she said. _**


	21. Chapter 21: I Need People

**Chapter 21**

"Nudge for the last time, give this up. This is a bad idea," I said, desperately trying not to beg. Which is saying something, 'cause I never beg unless it's for Nudge and Angel forcing me to play dressup. A lesson to all fourteen-year-old Avian-American guys out there (namely Iggy, but then again, he might be an exception): We do not look good in pink, let me tell you. "A terrible idea."

Now Fang, why don't you just force her to leave?

Well, brilliant mind, does anyone really want to drag a depressing eleven-year-old crying her eyes out and talking endlessly about what could've happened? Yeah, I didn't think so. This was Max's turf, not mine.

"Come on," I said softly. "I see Chaparral Court."

"What if they moved?" I asked for the bajillionth (I lost count after six) time. "What if you misunderstood what you read and these people aren't related to you at all?"

I silently took a deep breath and slowly said, "Nudge, even if you weren't a test-tube baby-which you probably were-what if there was a reason they gave you up? They might not want you back."

Yeah, it was harsh, but hey, anything to keep her from leaving the flock.

"Do you think I haven't thought of that?" she whispered with uncharacteristic anger. "I know that! But I have to try. I mean, if there's the slightest chance- wouldn't you try?"

And for once, I truly didn't know what to say. A thought like that was something the whole flock always wondered, except for me. For some reason, I never really pictured myself as the type of guy who stayed in one place, settled down, and went to school. I had accepted that I wasn't normal. And for that reason, sure, I'd like to know, or even meet, my parents, but in the end, I wouldn't stay. Finally, I said, "I don't know."

"That's because you don't need anything or anybody," Nudge said, turning back to stare at the mobile home. "But I'm not like that. I need people."

Okay, now that kind of hurt.

I may be strong, I may be quiet, and I may have a hard time showing emotion, but I do need people, or more specifically, the flock. Of course, she didn't know that.

I wanted to grab her by the arms and fly off, telling her this was so stupid. I wanted to yell at her. I wanted to say, "Oh yeah? You'd think I'd still be here after all these years if I didn't need every single one of you? I could have broken out of the School long ago, by myself. But I didn't. Because I needed the flock."

Actually, I just wanted to leave her. See what she would've done.

But I didn't. 'Cause I was Fang after all, Mr. Emotionless Brick Wall. Emotionless Brick Walls do not yell. They do not rant. They don't event talk. Hence the "brick wall" part of the nickname. So instead, I kept quiet. Instead, I let her do what she wanted.

We stayed out of sight between the car and some small pinyon (at least that's what Nudge said they were) tree. Unless Nudge had suddenly developed a serious illness, I'd say she was pretty nervous judging by her shaking.

I heard the door open and instantly tensed. She held her breath as a woman came out of the mobile home. The woman came down into the front yard, which was covered in brown pine needles, and sat down in a cheap lawn chair in the shade.

All I could say, yeesh. There was no way this seemingly-honest-to-god-on-crack woman could be related to someone as fashion conscious as Nudge. Her hair was dripping wet and in curlers, and there was a towel draped around her shoulders. She leaned back, lit a cigarette, and popped the top on a can of soda. Talk about depressing. Knowing Nudge, she was probably half-expecting a fashion guru twirling around while baking cookies or something.

"Coke. It's not just for breakfast anymore," I whispered, trying to lighten up the mood, and Nudge elbowed me. Her face seemed thoughtful, with a hint of disappointment.

"Looking for something, freaks? Guess you found it," a voice cackled from behind. I stifled a groan, knowing after a second who it was. The evil laughter, the horrid smell, and the constant growls were kind of dead giveway.

But hey, that's just me.

Ah, the joy of life of an Eraser. Rude male models one second, ruthless man-wolves the next. They're living the dream, all right.

"Ari," I growled. Way to state the obvious, Fang, way to be.

* * *

><p><strong><em>****PLEASE READ****<em>**

**_FIVE REVIEWS = FASTER UPDATE, WHEN FIFTH REVIEW COMES, I WILL START WRITING_**

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**_TWELVE REVIEWS = BY TONIGHT, DREAM ABOUT IGGY AND A FAX FLASHBACK_**

******_A/N: Hooray! I updated! I'm back from vacation at VA Beach and I'm trying to transition back into usual ways. My mom wouldn't let me buy the keychain, "I went to Virginia BITCH." So sad. -sniffs-. I know the quality of this chapter isn't very good, but I'll add more humor, dreams, and flashbacks in the upcoming chapters. Hopefully, the return of the dreaded ukeleles will come once again. Mwahahahahhaa. Unless I die or _****_something, I'll definitely be updating sometime this week again. Same goes for my other story, A Lifetime's Worth. I urge you to read it! I know I keep promoting, but nevertheless. Anyway, with that aside, I just wanted everyone to know that I will never make a chapter with only an Author's Note. 'Cause that's just cruel-setting your hopes up and destroying it. With that being said, I have news. -Cue dramatic drumroll-_**

**_I have made...A TWITTER.  
><em>**

**_Well okay, not that big. Actually, I had a twitter before I had a FF account but I have just redone my profile and now I will start using it for updates regarding on my stories. If anything comes up, I'll post there. If I'm updating soon, I'll post there. If I have to tell you readers anything, I'll post there. You get the picture. My username is: Fnickforever. Easy enough, right? Follow me, if you want! Thanks :D _**

**_Iggy: I'm not in this one either! -crosses arms-_**

**_Me: Oh, hush. Don't you see it says the main characters will be Fang and Max? Last time I checked, you're Iggy. _**

**_Iggy: Last time I checked, your face. _**

**_Me: That doesn't even make sense. _**

**_Iggy: I know you are, but what am I?_**

**_Me: Uhm. Okay. 0_0_**

**_SEE YA SOON, PALLIES_**


	22. Chapter 22: Erasers Suck

**Chapter 22**

Both Nudge and I were already on our feet at the sound of the voices behind us.

"Ari!" Nudge exclaimed, with a little surprise. "You were just a little kid."

I seem to forget that we never discussed Ari with the flock. And I'm pretty sure during Max's confrontation with him back in Colorado wasn't seen by anyone else. The others were either passed out or too busy with trying to stop their bleeding.

I'm sure not a lot of people have that issue. Then again, we aren't like other people.

Ari smiled like a pedophile (which is even creepier because he's only seven). "And now, I'm a great big grown-up Eraser," he said, and did a weird snappy thing with his teeth. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be intimidating. Oh well. "And you're a little brown piglet. Yum."

Was it just me, or was that statement a little racist?

"What did they do to you?" Nudge asked, which made me think of Little Red Riding Hood. But you know, Avian-American style.

_"Oh, Ari! What big teeth you have!" she pointed out, twirling in her bright red dress. _

_"THE BETTER TO EAT YOUR FLIPPING MUTANT FACE WITH!" he growled. _

I shuddered. Do you see why I keep to myself now? No use scarring any other minds.

Ari frowned, his hairy brow lowering. "Save your pity for yourself. I'm exactly who I want to be. And I've got some news for you." He began to roll up his sleeves, which meant some (insert another alternate word for poop) was going to go down. I mean, isn't that what happens in movies? "Your hideout in the mountains is nothing but ashes. Your pals keep having unfortunate accidents. You two are the last ones alive-and now we've got you."

Beside me, Nudge whimpered then started crying softly. My jaw tightened. Iggy...Gazzy...Angel..._Max_...dead?

I shook my head. No, I'll say it now and I'll say it again one day: I would know if they were dead. A gut feeling, an ache in my heart, a splitting headache, _something_. Something would tell me if they were. And there wasn't. Therefore, the flock was still alive.

I felt Nudge's gaze seeping to my side and I realized I hadn't said anything. My eyes were narrowed and my hands were balled up into fists. I looked pretty darn intimidating.

"Pinwheel," I muttered out of the side of my mouth. Heh heh, why yes, we do have super secret badass codewords for awesome moves. (Actually, "_super-secret-badass-codewords-for-awesome-moves_" was the original name, but we all agreed that it was a tad too long.)

"Cholla first," Nudge muttered back.

"Count of three," I said evenly, which really meant _count of one _because really, who is stupid enough to say that out loud?

Ari leaned over, lightning fast, and cuffed my shoulder. "Shut up!"

Okay, _now _I was pissed. Fang is very _touchy _with the touchy. No touchy the Fang. Except for the flock. Otherwise, _no touchy_. And that's emphasized because Fang just used third person on himself.

"One," I said, regaining my balance, and Nudge instantly lunged forward, shoving the second Eraser in the chest as hard as she could. Taken off guard, he staggered backward, right into the sharp spines of a cholla cactus (I still wondered how we knew these technical terms, considering we haven't been to school...ever). Cursing, the Eraser waved his arms but landed smack on top of its three-inch needles, and he started shrieking bloody murder.

Ah, music to my ears. Is that sick or what?

In the next second, Nudge launched herself into the air sideways and I grabbed her arms, and swung her body towards Ari. Her feet kicked outward, smashing Ari in the side of the neck, almost knocking him over, and leaving him choking and gagging.

I have to admit that was pretty cool. I remembered when we learned it a year ago, mimicking some old kung fu movie once.

Then I swung Nudge so hard, spinning her through the air as she snapped out her wings so she could fly away.

"You're gonna die, mutant," Ari snarled, leaping for me as I epically failed at flying away. He grabbed my leg, and we both fell to the ground. Then Ari was sitting on my chest (awkward), punching me. It reminded me of the old days.

Except instead of Max, it was a ruthless Eraser. Instead of being 98 pounds, he was three times as that, and instead of tickling me, he was trying to kill me.

But other than that it was exactly the same.

As Ari finally connected his fist with my nose, I heard Nudge gasp in the air. Why she hadn't flown off was beyond me. Another Eraser came over and decided to use my stomach as a punching bag as well. My ears were ringing and everything hurt like hell.

Again and again I felt each hit and again and again more blood sputtered out. I could only imagine the beautiful image this probably was from a distance. Ah, crap, was that the light? It felt too bright for my taste, to be honest. But it was pretty. Pretty light.

Suddenly, the pretty light disappeared and I heard beautiful music again. Or in my case, Ari's deathly scream. A weight was literally lifted off my shoulders and my eyes blinked open, to see Ari rubbing his eyes profusely. I took my chance and quickly did an up and away.

"You're _dead_, freaks," Ari snarled, his eyes streaming with tears, his long yellow teeth seeming too large for his mouth.

"Oh, like you're not a _freak _yourself," Nudge said meanly._ Ouch, did he need some eyes for that burn?_ "Try looking in a mirror, dog boy!"

Ari fumbled in his jacket, then pulled out a gun, a clear sign to _get the hell out. _Nudge and I rocketed out of there as fast as they could. It zipped past Nudge's ear, which freaked her out a bit. When they were safely away, Nudge said breathlessly, "I'm sorry, Fang. It was my fault you got hurt."

I spit more blood out and saw it travel down, secretly hoping it would somehow get in an Eraser's eye. "It wasn't your fault," I said. "You're just a kid."

"Let's go home," she said.

"They said it burned down," I answered, wiping blood from his lip. Then again, they also said Iggy and Gazzy were dead so...

"No, I mean the home with the hawks," said Nudge.

* * *

><p><strong><em>****PLEASE READ****<em>**

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**_TWELVE+ REVIEWS = BY TOMORROW NIGHT, SHOUTOUT AND A FAX FLASHBACK_**

**_A/N: VOILA! Longish chapter (for me) at your disposal now! So I write this story on Google Docs, and I write all in one document. Tonight it annoyed me too much, so I started a new document. Would anyone like a copy of Chapters 1-21 on GDocs? It can be converted to Word once you get it. Just PM me your email or whatever and I'll send it to you, cool? Thanks so much for all the reviews! Y'all are great. It'd be even greater if anyone reviewed Chapter 8? It's all...reviewless and meh. Please? _**

**_I'll begin working on ALW tomorrow, I swear. You can remind me and stuff. _**

**_Don't forget to follow fnickforever on Twitter for updates on my stories, thanks!_**

**_Review!_**

**_Keep reading!_**

**_-Fnickforever._**


	23. Chapter 23: Not So Private Thoughts

**Chapter 23**

"Do you hear that?" Nudge asked. It'd been hours since the "Tipisco Incident" (As it will forever be called now) and we were now sitting around on the cliffside STILL waiting for Max. I was actually surprised I've been able to handle Nudge's constant chatter. "It sounds like...a helicopter."

I frowned and turned my head to the side to listen closely. Peering out of the cave, I scanned for any perceptible threats. Far far away, I could make out the figure of helicopter. Headed toward us. Dang it.

"Move back!" I hissed silently. Nudge obeyed and backed up as much as she could; as did I. Quietly I whispered, "Don't say a word. Don't move a single muscle."

That may not sound difficult, but it's Nudge we're talking about here. On record, the longest she's gone without talking-besides when she's asleep-is a minute and forty-seven seconds. I kid you not, it's only been about a month and a half since she finally stopped sleeptalking. We literally had to duct tape her mouth shut before bed until recently. Gazzy kept trying to convince us there was this type of surgery dogs could have, where the doctor could cut off their vocal cords.

Believe me, the one thing that stopped us from doing that, was the fact that we had to go to the doctor's in order to make it happen.

On top of that, Nudge has some pretty nasty and disturbing dreams from time to time. It was enough to drive a mutant bird kid even more nuts. Talk about a total nightmare.

So imagine my surprise when Nudge didn't say anything for those whole twenty minutes we were still, not even cough. Huh, go figure. The helicopter passed by and I heard Nudge release a breath I didn't know she was holding when the chopping sounds of the blades finally faded away. I decided to go look for food while she stayed in case Max decided to finally show up.

I circled around the valley and even further, picking up speed.

Then finally, I hit the jackpot. Miles away from where I originally started looking was a family's campsite. Angling downwards, I aimed to land a few hundred yards away from my target.

And...get this: It was a family of six: the two that looked like the mom and dad were setting up. The mom had blond hair and the dad had black hair. The four others were kids, two boys and two girls. Both the boys and the youngest girl had blond hair and the other had dark hair and darker skin. Sound a bit familiar?

I had to cover my mouth to prevent gasping when the mom shrieked when she accidentally burned her hand from the grill and the dad rushing to her side. An incident I knew too well.

_"DAMMIT, YOU!" I heard Max yell. We all snapped our heads to turn towards her. Max was bent over, shaking her right hand endlessly. She was doing some weird dance thing that looked almost like the pee-pee dance, but then again, she dances like that all the time. Sigh. _

_We had decided that we would go camping today. It was the little kids' ideas, why they needed to go camping even though we already live in the woods was beyond me. Something about "not having the full experience."_

_"Max!" I exclaimed. Her head shot upwards. When she realized the whole flock was staring at her, her cheeks flamed and she quickly stood up straight, hands behind her back. I jogged towards her, raising an eyebrow. "What the hell happened?"_

_Max blinked innocently. "What ever do you mean, Fang?" I rolled my eyes. _

_"Well, let's see," I said, pretending to think with my hand rubbing my chin. "I don't recall the indestructible Max ever having the habit of yelling 'DAMMIT, YOU!' randomly. So I'm thinking, just spitballin' here, that maybe, possibly, perhaps something happened?"_

_She glared at me, hard. I returned evenly with a smug look that said, "Bitch please, I know you like Einstein knows physics." (Excuse my language, folks. I've just always wanted to say that, but Max always yell at Iggy and I for language. Wow, I'm so whipped. And it doesn't help the fact that Angel can read our minds, so in a way, it doesn't really work out.)_

_"Well," she began, and turned away from me, most likely to hide her blush. "I maybe, possibly, perhaps have burned my...hand."_

_"Did you maybe, possibly, perhaps have done that by trying to cook?" _

_"Grill," she corrected lamely. "And maybe, possibly, perhaps."_

_At this point, the flock realized nothing too serious happened and went to go explore. I took a stepped towards Max. She gulped and I saw her tense up. _

_"And didn't Iggy and the whole flock tell you never to cook?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. You should know, that I'm never this talkative. The only exception being when I'm with Max. There was no point in shutting up, she knew what I was thinking anyway. Might as well confirm it. _

_"Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps," Max said, a little weaker. I took another step closer her. This time, our faces were inches apart. But since Max didn't look like she was about to push me back anytime soon, I stood my ground. _

_Which is when I decided I'd have a little fun. _

_Which is also why I grinned, catching Max so off guard that she stumbled back a little. I chuckled. Regaining her balance, she looked back at me, searching for reasons in my eyes. I didn't have any, which meant she wouldn't find any. Which meant this a hundred times funnier 'cause she didn't know what was coming. _

_"What's the matter?" I asked, still grinning. Secretly, the sides of my mouth were starting to hurt. Smiling freaking hurt. Not to mention I probably looked like a creepier version of the Cheshire Cat. Or like...Chucky the Clown or something. _

_"Cat got your tongue? Or more appropriately...wolf?" I asked, referring to the time an Eraser literally grabbed her by the tongue (I still don't know how it managed to do that). I heard someone in my mind giggle. Which was insanely weird. Oh wait...Angel. _

Angel, what is it?_ I thought at her._

_She giggled again._ Oh nothing...

_I was raising an eyebrow at Max, who was now glaring at Angel, who mockingly __matched her glare as well. She's so cute._

Doesn't sound like nothing,_ I thought at Angel. Now she was chuckling. _

Max was thinking about how hot you would look if you always smiled,_ Angel admitted. Now I was the one blushing. _Now, when you said, 'she's so cute," who were you referring to?

_I gulped. _I, uh, well, you see_-_

I KNEW IT!_ She interrupted in my head. Angel wiggled her eyebrows at me suggestively (which is freaky for a five-year-old), motioning my head towards Max. And of course, Max saw the whole exchange between us. Great. _

DAMMIT, YOU!_ I thought-yelled at Angel. She laughed and I felt her leave my head. I knew she left Max's head, too when I heard Max let out a sigh of relief. _

_"Wait, did Angel tell you anything?" she asked, of course. I smirked. Of course she would ask._

_"Maybe. Possibly. Perhaps," I replied simply, with a little smugness in my voice. I heard her growl. Then, I straightened up. "Why, did she tell YOU anything?"_

_She chuckled, shaking her head at my stupidity. Finally, Max smiled and looked up at me. And even simpler she said, "Yes."_

I tiptoed swiftly but carefully towards the family's grill, while they concerningly crowded around the mom, and swiped away the kabobs they were grilling.

Breaking out into a sprint, I ran as far as possible, unfurled my wings, and flew back to Nudge without a second thought.

When I got there, Nudge had a thoughtful look in her eyes, but she quickly shook it off.

"Can I interest you in a bit of raw desert rat?" I asked, patting my windbreaker pocket.

"Oh, no!" Nudge said, horrified. Her face made me want to crack up. Silly Nudge, did you really think I'd go all the way just to find rat?

I shrugged off my windbreaker and brushed some dust off my shirt. Popping a piece of meat in my mouth, I chewed and swallowed loudly. "Can't get fresher," he said cajolingly. Why, yes, I decided to have a little more fun.

"Ugh!" Nudge shuddered and turned away from me. It took all my self-control not to burst out laughing.

"Okay, then," I said. "How about some kabobs? You get the vegetables."

Nudge whirled around and caught unwrapping the foil. Of course, now that I had decent food, she paid attention to me. The waft of the fresh kabobs filled the air, making me want to drool.

"_Kabobs_!" she said, hurrying towards me. "Where did you get them? You didn't have time to go all the way to town. Oh, my gosh, they're still hot."

"Let's just say some campers are going to be a little surprised," I replied mysteriously. Heh heh, I could faintly remember a fading, "WHAT THE HELL?" and a couple extra colorful words in the background when I was running away, but that could have been anything.

Nudge took a bite of grilled pepper. It was warm, smoky, tender-utter heaven.

"Now, _this_ is food," she said, closing her eyes. Technically, everything is edible, even me. But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, as Willy Wonka used to put it.

"So I guess we have to decide whether to keep looking for Max or go try to save Angel," I said conversationally, testing her. Of course, I would keep looking for Max. I knew she was alive, I just wanted to see if Nudge still had faith, something she kept looking these days.

"But the Erasers said everyone else was dead. Doesn't that mean Angel and Max too?" she asked. My heart tightened a little. Did she really believe that?

"No way to tell," I said. "The thing is, if Max isn't here, is it because she's dead? How would they have found her? Angel…" I paused, rethinking my statement. "Well, we knew they had Angel. That's probably all over by now."

Nudge held her head in her hands. She looked ready to cry or give up. Oh God, I was not good at this. "I can't think about it."

"I know. But what are your-" I began to say, but was distracted by two dark figures that seemed to be flying towards us in the sky. Nudge caught my sight and looked out as well.

Suddenly, I stood and fished in his pocket for a small mirror. Perfect, this should do the trick. I held out my hand, and caught the last bits of sunset in the mirror, flashing their reflection outward.

At this point, I still couldn't make out what they were. Erasers? Too thin. Helicopters? Too small. I peered even closer.

My eyes widened as realization finally dawned on me. What the hell were _they _doing here? Max is so gonna kill them, if they aren't dead on impact yet. They were spiraling down fast, almost out of control, and were heading towards the hard rocky ground. Moments later, the Gasman and the ukelele master himself landed clumsily on the ledge, knocking rocks and dust everywhere. Nudge and I were both staring at them. Nudge on a happier note, and me in a more, "I'm too badass for feelings so I'm just gonna nod" note. A usual note, for me.

"You aren't _dead_," she said. No, really? I hadn't noticed, Nudge. Thanks for clarifying.

"No. You aren't dead either," said Iggy irritably. I held back a snort. "How about just 'hello'?"

"Hi, guys," said the Gasman, brushing dust out of his hair. "We couldn't stay home-there's Erasers all over the mountain. So we decided to come here. Anybody have a problem with that?"

Erasers on the hunt for us? Check.

Two-thirds of our flock together? Check.

The other one-third is confirmed to be alive? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

**_**PLEASE READ**_**

**_I have a challenge for myself. I promised I'd do whatever it takes to be the most popular FangPOV of TAE out there, can you guys make that happen? All you have to do is keep reviewing. I want to get the most reviews, and there are a lot out there. Please help my goal come true!_**

**_And have you ever realized I've never had a disclaimer? Well, tough. I'm pretty sure JP knows I'm not out there claiming the plot is mine. So what makes my story any different? _**

**_FIVE REVIEWS = BY THREE DAYS FROM NOW_**

**_EIGHT REVIEWS = BY TOMORROW NIGHT_**

**_TEN REVIEWS = BY TOMORROW NIGHT, SHOUTOUT TO ALL REVIEWERS ON TWITTER/TUMBLR/NEXT CHAPTER_**

**_TWELVE+ REVIEWS = BY TOMORROW NIGHT, SHOUTOUT AND AN IGGY DREAM_**

_**A/N: LONGEST CHAPTER MADE EVER. Sorry for the lateness! Parents being asian and forcing me to stop using my computer. Ugh. But technically since I got the eighth review this morning, tomorrow night, would still be my deadline, lol. _THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS! They make me smile...a I'm having suspicions the non-signed-in reviews are all from the same person, because FUNNY how there are exactly 12 reviews. Hm... I'll reply to some of your reviews now. I think you should know how I write. I normally don't plan. Sure, I know the gist of what I'm writing, but I don't really know exactly. It just comes to me, for some reason. And I just write, lol. So feel free to give me suggestions, as it may spark up some good ideas! _**_

**InsanityforFANG3: _When you mentioned migraine, I totally had an idea instantly for that. Thanks for the ideas, but I'll use those in future chapters, that cool?_**

**FANGYpoo4393: _-giggles- Nyaw, that's so sweet of you to say. James Patterson is such a writing role model. And I corrected that typo, do not worry! _**

**The Darkness is Alive: _You might wanna check TAE again, don't worry, I know my stuff. I have it as reference and I've read the book 6 times. I know what I'm doing ;)_**

**Lovemeforlife: _Thanks! I try really REALLY hard not to go OOC, so that means a lot :D And I think originality is the hardest for me in this story, since the plot isn't original at all. It's difficult to add my own spice to it so I'm glad you appreciate my effort!_**

**FangyyRocks: _I already fixed that little typo, so no worries! And the 3rd person that's left is intentional :)_**

**_Other shoutouts to, yaaahoooWTH, CookieFaceMonster44, Nothingg, IGGSTER628, The Illusionist's Wings04, MaxandFang39oo, ImDifferent-GetOverIt, JJJ, and haiku101. You guys rock!_**

**_That's all for now. If you want to contact me, use PM, Twitter, Tumblr, or whatever. THANKS TO ALL! _**


	24. Chapter 24: Brink of Insanity

**_ZOMG! AN ACTUAL A/N BEFORE THE STORY, FNICKFOREVER? NO WAY! _**

**_Yes, way. So ANYway, (heh heh see what I did there?) Your reviews were so absolutely touching. One in particular by an alias of FANGYpoo4393, actually (check their review out later for Chapter 22). I thought it was incredibly sweet that you would review so much for me to update! (God, I swear, like I told Her-Bloody-Majesty, ego-boosting reviews are like..the bambi eyes of fanfiction, don't you agree?) :) I don't really mind it, it was just something I wasn't used to. SO thankyouthankyouthankyou for inspiring me again because lately I've gotten severe writers' block. (Actually, for some reason. I don't think that's the appropriate term, for some reason, I get the opposite. I get so many ideas, that my head starts to hurt, and I have hard time picking which one to do). And 'cause of you my head's in it more. Again, thanks so much! Don't apologize 'cause you did nothing wrong, I just didn't think that I had fans that would like me so much they would do that, and I'm really flattered :3_**

**_I also forgot to mention the "Einstein knows physics" analogy from the last chapter was a reference to me and one of my best friends, 'cause that's how I would always compare my friendship with her. I miss her a lot, in a different sense, and I was thinking about her when I wrote this. Even though isn't a MR cult member, I love her and miss our talks. (She's not dead, jeez -_-)_**

**_So this chapter is...different, to say the least. I had super fun writing this but I have to admit I might possibly have gone insane in the process. This is just a little treat for all of you faithful readers I'm totally thankful for, enjoy!_**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 24<br>**  
><em>I flinched as the thunder got even louder and rain started to pour by the gallons. Twas a dark and cliche night. Not a mutant was stirring, not even bird. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nic-<br>_  
><em>Nah, not really. But it was raining like hell though.<br>_  
><em>I lay awake under the covers, listening for any sort of noise from any of the other rooms. All night I had been wondering if it was keeping anyone else up. So far, I thought I was the only one awake.<br>_  
><em>I turned this way and that, being careful not to be too loud as I was afraid I'd wake the others. It was hard to fall into dreamland as is. Nearly two in the morning and I was still not out yet. Wearily, I shut my eyes tightly in hopes it would do me any good.<br>_  
><em>But it didn't really help that as the night went by, the storm progressed worse. The wind was howling crazily and I couldn't help but shudder at its bare similarity to an Erasers' howl. It was then I realized I really needed to get some sleep before I started imagining up some nightmares. Like I didn't have enough already. So when in doubt, count bird kids.<br>_  
><em>"One bird kid, two bird kids, three bird kids," I whispered softly. I pictured Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge flying over a fence.<br>_  
><em>"Four bird k-" I began when a yawn interrupted. "-ids, five bird kids, six bird kids..." And naturally, I pictured Max, Iggy, and I now jumping over a fence. My mind for some reason wandered to Max and only her face filled her mind.<br>_  
><em>Then more of her faces started duplicating, and before I knew it, there were over thirty crowding each other. Which was when they all started changing colors and walking around all the over the place. Just picture the elephant dream Dumbo had in that movie. It was basically like that but with Max's instead of elephants. Even the music for that started playing. When it began being catchy, suddenly, all the Max's stopped in their place like time just halted. And somehow, for some strange reason, I found myself in the center of the Max crowd. All at once, they turned to look at me and grinned. Creeeeeeepy.<br>_  
><em>They all stepped towards me and I became enclosed in a freaking Max circle.<br>_  
><em>I started hyperventilating when one by one, they all touched me in some way. Some were poking me in the chest curiously, some were petting my head, and some were squeezing my arms, giggling. I was beyond freaked. Even more when all of the Max's started giggling. Max? Giggling? I don't think so. Yes, one Max doing this, would be in a way adorable for words. But this was just pushing it.<br>_  
><em>"Fang, you're so ripped!" a Max complimented. <em>  
><em>"Fang, you're hair's so...lush," another one said seductively. <em>  
><em>"Fang, have you been working out?" asked some other Max. <em>  
><em>"Fang-"<em>  
><em>"Fang-"<em>  
><em>"Fang." "Fang." "Fang." "Fang." They all stepped even closer and I felt myself shrink away until I saw only darkness.<em>

I gasped for air and lurched upwards. My eyes were shot open and I was scanning the whole room and stopped at the clock. Four AM. Wow, it was just a dream. It was a dream. I was really considering going to a therapist now. My dreams couldn't be normal. I flopped back down on my pillow and shuffled a bit to get comfortable when I realized I was shirtless.

That's weird. I could have sworn I wore a shirt to bed. I never really go to bed unclothed. It freaked the hell out of Max whenever she came in to wake me up when I overslept so I stopped doing it.

I shuffled more, frustrated I couldn't get comfortable when my hand brushed something that felt like skin.

But it wasn't my skin. So of course, I froze while my blood ran cold. Staying as still as possible, I listened.

And then I heard breathing next to me. My own breath caught and I must have twitched because before I knew it, the right side of the bed was moving. Whoever or whatever it was, was under the covers, my covers.

More shuffling and then a bit of a blonde head peeked out.

And of course, being the intelligent mutant that I am, I did what any other person would do (if they found themselves shirtless in the middle of the night with a body next to them that is. But that's besides the point). I poked it.

It moved but it didn't show itself yet. It was probably still asleep. I had half the mind to look but was feared at the nasty thought of the uncertainty if it was clothed or not. Because like every other person, I worry about things like that, right? Right.

"Mmmm, Fang, I love you," the voice said. I finally let out a sigh of relief when I recognized the voice: Max.

"Oh, Max," I sighed. "It's just you. Okay, I was so worried it was just some random person," I chuckled. And I heard Max's voice chuckle, as well. But after a while, I heard its smooth and even breathing again, probably meaning she fell asleep, too. I was about to join the snoozefest, when my eyes shot open again. "Wait, MAX?"

Okay, so it wasn't that normal. I heard her voice groan. "Fang? What is it?" her voice asked calmly. I was facing her direction when I had anticipated her to finally peek her whole head out of the covers to look at me in the eye and tell me why the hell she was in my room without bothering to ask or wake me.  
>But when Max finally decided to show herself, I had to rub my eyes twice to see what was really in front of me.<p>

And what was really in front of me, meaning the one who WAS in my bed (who might I add is shirtless as well), was not Max. Nope, because that would be not weird enough right? Right.

Of course, because it's my life, I saw Iggy instead.

"What is it, Fang?" Iggy asked again. But for some reason that I really don't feel like trying to even comprehend anymore, it was still Max's voice, but coming out of his mouth. I groaned, so tired of the confusion, and of everything not making sense. Was my conscience trying to tell me something? Was Iggy going to kill me or something? 'Cause I really don't know anymore, to be honest. Will I wake up next morning not knowing where I am? Will I even wake up in the first place? God, so many questions so little time.

"It's okay. We have time. We have lots of time, actually. Don't worry," an insanely deep voice commented, oddly Jamaican sounding, which this time was coming from my left. I turned to my other side and came face-to-face with of course, something completely normal again. Surprise, surprise!

Why do I even bother to sleep?

A giant ukelele was literally standing there, but it was moving like a person. And the sound hole was moving like a mouth. And it was grinning at me, evilly.

And it gets even better! (Yes, _really_! Oh, happy day!) Because of course, the ukelele had to bring FRIENDS. Yes, _FRIENDS_! So, to add to the merry band of stringed instruments in my _oh so_ normal room, a bass, an acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar trotted inside my room.

"Don't worry," Mr. Ukelele said again, and started whistling (don't even ask how, _I _don't even know). "Don't worry, be happy now."

And the merry band of stringed instruments broke out in song. Anyone like Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bob Marley? Yeah, I don't anymore. I think I have developed yet another phobia, aside from scientists, wolves, cages, hospitals, needles, and people in general.

"Here's a little song I wrote," it sang while the rest whistled and backed it up. My head was literally spinning. Joy. "You might wanna sing it note for note. But don't worry, be happy."

It's official. I've gone completely insane.

God, I hate my life. I blame everyone.

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><p><strong><em>AN:_**

**_**PLEASE READ**_**

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**_Okay, so what do you think? That was really different, I warned you, LOL. Thanks for all the reviews! Remember, follow my twitter to see announcements and updates on stories. Fnickforever is also my username for Twitter._**

**_Princesshoneydew: A lot of people have asked that and if people keep doing so and I get more good feedback on this, I MIGHT continue the whole series. Of course, I want to finish this first. :) And you're not coming off rude! I'm thankful for the readers who point out typos so I can fix it as soon as possible. _**

**_And everyone is welcome to review as much as they want because in the end, a review is a review and it catches my attention ;)_**

**_KEEP READING! LOVE YOU ALL! YOU GIVE ME HOPE. SERIOUSLY. _**

**_-FNICKFOREVER. _**


	25. Chapter 25: Typical Morning

**Chapter 25  
><strong>  
>My eyes shot open as I felt a stinging sensation on my cheek. Blinking a couple times, I realized Nudge was pinning me down, awkwardly I may add, with the Gasman and Iggy also looking at me worringly.<p>

"Uhh...good morning?" I greeted lamely, though it ended up sounding like a question. The rest of the flock stayed tense, but Nudge had let go and pulled back and sat in between Gazzy and Iggy. "What is everyone looking at and why the _hell _does my face feel like it's about to fall of?"

Iggy smirked a little. "Yeah, about that. Nothing we did would wake you up...so we had to use extreme measures." He waved one of his hands smugly.

_Couldn't wake me up, my ass. _I blearily blinked my eyes a couple times and rubbed my cheek vigorously, as if that would help with the pain. Muttering some colorful words, I groaned and sat up, only to be greeted by a lovely and charming headache...most likely from last night's oh-so-wonderful dream. Groggily I said, "Wha...?"

"You woke us all up, actually," Nudge explained. "You started groaning a lot, then you kept moving around, and then we kept hearing you say Iggy and Max's names. You also kept going on about ukeleles and elephants and Dumbo and being drunk and Bob Marley! Oh, and you said bad words, too. A lot of bad words, actually, even ones I haven't heard yet! I think it was t-"

"Okay!" I interrupted. "I think that's enough debriefing for now."

Gazzy snorted. "Heh heh, de..._briefing_."

Nudge and I rolled our eyes as Gazzy and Iggy shrieked with laughter, which eerily echoed in the cave. Speaking of the cave, it was absolutely smelled of fecal bat matter, or something along the lines of it. Frankly, I did not need to know.

After scavenging for food in the wild (a dumpster behind the nearest McDonald's), we went for a little excercise and flew with the hawks. It gave me time to think, and an excuse to become one with my emoness.

For some reason, I had a good feeling. Max was going to come back soon. It almost made me laugh at the thought of Max's confusion and slight anger toward the fact that Iggy and Gazzy have now joined our little rescue mission. So much for holding the fort in Colorado, am I right?

I didn't realize I was chuckling softly 'til Iggy swooped in beside me. "I heard a deep yet slightly disturbing chucking noise coming from here. Could it be that the Dark Overlord of Emoness has developed a sense of humor?" Iggy gasped mockingly. "Or were you thinking about your dream? Was it about Max?" he asked again, raising his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

I shot him a useless glare. "Noooo," I said slowly. "I was _thinking _that Max will probably skin you and Gazzy alive when she finds out you're here."  
>Iggy gulped, which was when I decided I would have a little fun again. I cleared my throat.<p>

"Then, while you're lying there bleeding to death," I continued darkly, adding every drop of evil and maliciousness I could ever put in my voice. "She'll take some rubbing alcohol and throw it towards your bodies. While you're screaming in utter pain, she'll spread some gasoline and set you on fire." I tried really hard not to laugh. "That will leave you burning slowly, wilting away...to pure..._nothingness_," I whispered the last part to add a bit of mystery in my tone. I kid you not, Iggy shivered and a bead of sweat dropped from his ever-annoying face. Nothing like a hard days' work for a dark-minded bird kid.

"Geez, remind me not to get you mad," he said, tugging the collar of his shirt. He seemed _pretty _dang alarmed by my predictions. I snickered.

"And if you must know," I said. "My dream was about you, oh _darling _Iggy," I said dramatically. Even though saying that sent chills down my spine, I think it was ten times worse for Iggy since it was coming from, oh I don't know, _me_.

Iggy looked at me (well, my right ear, technically), then shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask." And with that, he went to go fly with Gazzy.

Our next hour was filled with just soaring with the hawks and for a brief moment, I didn't think of anything else. It was nice. It was relaxing. It felt great not having to worry about the outside world. Like where Max was, where Angel was, the School, the Erasers, our parents, _Jeb_. I sighed. Welcome back to reality, Fang.

I looked back at Nudge, Iggy, and Gazzy with a tinge of sadness. Even though, I had all that hope that Max was coming back and Angel would be rescued and we'd all go back to normal, I would be lying if I said I didn't have any doubt on this thought at all.

Truth was, who really knew? Would we ever be a flock again? Will life ever be normal (at least, as normal as we were used to) again? Are we going to even live? It was the same questions over and over again, the same questions Max and I used to ponder about when Jeb left.

Because besides the flock, there was only one single thing that was always constant in our lives: the inconsistency itself. And that always lead to one only other question: How long will the flock be staying together?

My mind went on like this for a while, 'til I realized I was going in circles. Right now, it was important we stayed on top of everything. Anything could happen, which was when I felt eyes boring into me. I scanned the sky, this way and that, frantic that someone was watching us, _studying _us, knowing we were here. We _existed_. The sky seemed to be empty, except for a bird. At first I thought, "Okay, birds are normal. It's the freaking sky, what do you expect? Bacon?" Then I peered closer and realized this was no ordinary bird. It was too lop-sided and too big for just any bird. Birds didn't wear baggy jeans or windbreakers, nor did they have blonde hair. It was a bird like no other, the bird I wanted to see the most, or more specifically, the bird _kid _I wanted to see the most. Max was coming to us and the hawks. Max was going to be with the family, the kids, _me_.

Max was home.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN_**

**_***PLEASE READ***_**

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**_Okay, judging how I haven't updated in FOREVER, you might want to strangle me. I'm sorry! I had to catch up on summer work, I've been so focused on Fanfiction that I completely neglected it. I also have a lot of other responsibilities I have to catch up on, too! But I figured that I needed to update because I might lose you guys :(_**

**_Follow me on twitter: Fnickforever_**

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**_Thanks to you all! YOU GIVE ME HOPE. _**

**_Keep reading!_**

**_-Fnickforever. _**


	26. Chapter 26: Max's Return

**Chapter 26**

I don't think you would believe me if I told you that it took all my self-control not to squeal like a girl and fly to Max and hug her like crazy. No, of course not, 'cause I'm just too cool, right? Of course.

Instead, I set all those urges aside and motioned my head towards the cliff the rest of the flock had been occupying the past day or two. Nudge had pulled back and was a lot closer to Max now as I stayed ahead. From a distance, I heard her squeal about Max coming back. I landed first, walking into the shadows of the cave, or more specifically a shallow ledge scraped out of the cliff face, like the emo that I am.

I watched Max land, but something about one of her wings seemed stiffer than the other. Was it because she had hurt herself over the past couple days or had I become beyond boss at flying? I was really hoping it was the latter.

"Max!" Nudge yelped, rushing over to hug Max, and for a second, I wished I was Nudge hugging Max. But the thought left very quickly as I shook it off. What was happening to me lately? When did Emo Fang suddenly like getting all cuddly? I shuddered at the thought of my self turning into a giant version of a Lots-O Huggin' Bear. There was that big question, too: Did I act this way because I really have become a marshmallow? Or was it Max in general that was doing this to me?

Well, one thing's for sure, snuggling with Iggy _voluntarily _was definitely not in the near future, so I'm guessing it was Max. But what I'm asking now is, why? Why now, why me, why her? She was my best friend. Clearly, nothing more and naturally, I don't think the feelings were mutual...I hope. Life would be too weird if that were to ever happen. I focused my energy to the flock now as Nudge gushed about the past couple days. "We were so worried-I didn't know what had happened to you, and we didn't know what to do, and Fang said we were going to eat rats, and-"

"Okay, okay. Everything's okay," Max reassured her. Behind Nudge, she caught my eye and mouthed _Rats_?, looking confused. I couldn't help but grin thinking about yesterday when I recalled that one camping memory of Max and I. She looked back down at Nudge. "I'm just so glad to see you safe." Then her eyes traveled to Gazzy and Iggy. _Uh oh, they're in for it__._ "What are _you_ _two_ doing here? Why didn't you stay home?"

"We couldn't," the Gasman defended, sounding oh-so-innocent. "There were Erasers all over the mountain. They were hunting for us. We'd be dog meat by now."

Max seemed surprised. Gaz and Ig told us about their recent bird kid adventures before going to sleep last night. Wait 'til she gets a load of what happened. "When did they start hunting for you?" she questioned. "Right after we left?"

"No," said the Gasman slowly. He shot a sideway glance to Iggy, quickly looking guiltier by the second. In the corner of my eye, I could see Iggy twitching a bit, which usually happens when he senses danger. Max mad = All hell breaks loose = Bomb confiscation = World War III. Well, maybe not _that _bad, but you get the point. The point being it's _pretty dang _bad.

"What?" she asked again, her one eyebrow raised slightly. "When did they start coming after you?"

"Was it-was it after the oil-slick Hummer crash?" the Gasman asked Iggy nonchalantly. _Oh yeah, made a couple cars fall off a cliff, probably killing a couple Erasers in the process, no biggie, who's up for some burgers?_

Max looked taken aback, eyes so wide it looked like they were ready to pop out.

Iggy rubbed his chin, thinking.

"Or maybe it was more-after the bomb," the Gasman a little quieter this time, avoiding Max's gaze. For the record, I really think I should have videotaped this or something.

"I think it was the bomb," Iggy agreed. "That definitely seemed to tick them off."

"Bomb?" At this point, Max looked like she was about to burst-also an amusing moment. There were these little things a quiet kid can always look forward to, you know? It's quite entertaining, if you ask me. "_Bomb_? You guys set off a _bomb_? Didn't that tell the Erasers exactly where you were? You should have stayed hidden!"

"They already knew where we were," the Gasman explained. 'They'd seen all of us-they knew we were in the area."

"It was just a matter of time," Iggy agreed. Good save, Ig, good save. I honestly think he literally saved his and Gaz's head that day.

Max stayed quiet for a moment, seeming like she was mulling the situation over, deciding whether to let this one go or rip their heads off. She sighed.

"Well, I'm glad you're safe," she finally said. That's _it_? Little Miss Word Queen, no quip? Shame, shame. I tried smothering my laughter, but to no avail. Knowing Max, she probably heard me but decided to ignore me as well. "You were right to come here. Smart thinking. Excellent."

She hugged the Gasman, Iggy, then Nudge again, and she clung to her as Max stroked her hair. "It's okay, sweetie," I said softly.

When, Nudge finally let go, Max made her way to me and hugged me as well. It was weirdly nice, in a warm fuzzy kind of way. Has it always been that warm and fuzzy? I restrained myself from hugging her back properly since it would be a too un-Fang-like manner, even though I really did want to.

Then Max held my left hand out in a fist, and the other four and I instantly stacked our left fists on top of it. We each tapped the other's hands twice, then threw our arms up in the air.

"To Angel!" Max yelled, in a little dramatic/action movie kind of way, and our echos surrounded the cave.

"To Angel! To Angel!"

As we jumped off the cliff and spread our wings to soar once again, somehow I got myself thinking about my best friend again, and how she could possibly make me feel this way without doing anything.

Blah, emotions. The one human thing that makes our lives just that much harder.

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><p><em><strong>***PLEASE READ***<strong>_

_**5 Reviews = 1.5 weeks**_

_**10 Reviews = 1 week**_

_**15 Reviews = Sunday**_

_**20+ Reviews = Saturday, with a flashback/dream**_

_**SORRYSORRYSORRY I know, I'm a couple days late (LOL that's what she said) but school started yesterday and I've been crazy busy and whatnot. The business will die down once I settle in my classes so no worries! It's just for the next week, I swear. **_

**_Any good first day of school experiences? I'd love to hear them :)_**

**_SO...how about those MR fanfic awards...heh heh. How amazing would it be to get nominated -cough cough- for any of my stories -cough cough- for Lifetime's Worth and this one -cough cough- and the link available to the nomination forum on my profile -cough cough- MAN, I'm going down with something, what will all the coughing ;) fanfiction(dot)net/topic/97395/48778252/1/#48930918_**

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**_-Fnickforever. _**


	27. Chapter 27: To Be Happy

**Chapter 27**

There was really something about flying high in the sky that makes everything ten times clearer than they really are—and no, I am not just saying that because I have super bird kid vision.

It was easier to focus on things, really. It may be because of the fact that my greatest memories have been up here in the air.

"Okay," Max said, once we were high, flying with a steady rhythm. "How about some quick reports?"

"I tried to find my mom," Nudge said. _Nice subtlety, Nudge, there's that NBD factor again. _

"Whaaat?" I could only imagine Max's reaction when she stared at Nudge. "Your _mom?"_

Nudge shrugged. "I made Fang go down to Tipisco while we were waiting for you. We found the right address. I saw a woman, and she was my kind of color, but I wasn't sure. Then the Erasers, including that dirtbag Ari, showed up, so we kicked butt and left."

Ahem, more like _I _kicked butt, but WHATEVER. "So you didn't talk to her? Umm, your mom?"

"No." Nudge avoided eye contact with Max. For some reason, bringing the topic up like that and avoiding it the next second is kinda sketchy.

"Did she look nice?" If nice meant one that looked like a crack addict that got run over a couple times then sure, she was a real ball of a sunshine...of course, if that's what she meant.

"I'll tell you about it later," Nudge cut off.

Max looked past me to glare at Gazzy and Iggy, who I'm pretty sure are not off the hook just yet. "We know what _you've_ been up to," she said. Gazzy smiled innocently, a lesson he learned well from his younger sister. A few more of those and I know for a a fact he'll be fine in no time. As for Iggy, well, he can't exactly pull off any type of smile without looking suspiciously guilty. Never has, never will. Some people just give off that aura, I guess.

And knowing Iggy, most of the time he _will _be suspiciously guilty. It's not just his appearance. Trust me, I know _very _well how that works.

"I think I have a tracer chip implanted in me," Max announced and shifted while she flew. "I'm not positive, but it showed up on an X-ray, and that's what it looked like."

Woah, _rewind: _ She had an _X-Ray? _

"You had an X-ray?" I stared at her in disbelief An X-Ray! She got a freaking X-Ray! What, did she get a lollipop, too?

Max nodded. "Details later. If I do have this chip, it explains all the Erasers everywhere-but not why it's taken them four years to hunt us down. And I don't know if any of you have one," Well, there goes my chillness out of the window. Hello paranoia, welcome back. How was Hawaii? So you say there was lots of people after you? _Oh, _but they didn't show themselves? That's...nice.

"Max? Do you think there's still a chance?" Gazzy asked her. It seemed Max was uneasy about this question, having internal battles whether she should try to be optimistic or realistic or pessimistic. Usually, the last two were equivalents in our lives.

"I don't know. I hope so," she said. I heard the hesitation in her voice, as I've come to live by, since it was always hard for her to let the young kids in on those kinds of things. "I know I've delayed us by two days. I'm really sorry about that. I just did what I felt I had to do. But we've come this far-there's no turning back. We're going after Angel, no matter what."

Silence.

_One hour later._

Silence.

Huh. You'd think by now, Nudge had started talking about the latest fashion trends or Gazzy and Iggy arguing about which chemicals were better paired with which, but it was eerily quiet.

Too quiet. And that's coming from me.

Being the ultimate chatterbox that I am, I moved my wings faster to keep up with Max, who had sped up in front of us to have some "Max time," also a common thing she needs to keep herself sane. I didn't blame her. None of us did, although the younger children seem to take for granted that Max _was _just fourteen years old and so were Iggy and I. Life was tough.

"Yo," I greeted. She stayed stoic, keeping her eyes up ahead with no acknowlegement whatsoever. I turned to see her eyes were narrowed with a slightest hint of frustration in the wrinkles of her brow. After studying her, I looked ahead, as well.

After a few incomprehensible moments, she sighed and shot me a sideways look, still devoid of emotion.

"So I was gone," she pointed out.

"Mhmm," I agreed.

"For a while."

"Mhmm."

"For a couple days, actually."

"Mhmm."

"I got an X-Ray."

I paused for a second. "Mmm...hmmm..."

"And I needed rest."

"Mhmm."

"Since someone shot me. And I also learned how to make chocolate chip cookies."

"Mhmm," I murmured again. Then my eyes widened and my head whipped towards her again. "Wait, _what?"  
><em>  
>She grimaced and now avoided my eye contact completely. "I said I learned how to make chocolate chip cookies."<p>

I shook my head. "No, before that."

"I said I needed rest."

"No, _after _that."

"Oh yeah, I may, possibly, perhaps, have gotten shot."

I looked at her incredulously, figuring out how to react. Knowing her, I knew what she wanted me to do. It would help her a lot, and it'll make it seem like it never happened. That's Max, always wanting to make everything a distant memory.

I sighed, realizing what I was choosing to do. I don't know why I oblige her too much. It could be 'cause she was the leader, 'cause I know what she was going through, or simply because she was my best friend.

I cleared my throat. "So about those cookies..."

Her whole face lit up as she went along and went through an epic tale of these so called mystical baking legends. Who knows, maybe she's something more? All I know is, for now, my job was to make her happy, as the world made it seem that hard for her to even try to make an attempt. So I guess I have my work cut out for me.

But you know what? That's what's going to make it that more worth it.

* * *

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**Nicetry: Sigh, anon hater. You guys are all the same: pathetic. First of all, Fang POV of TAE has been done before long before Fangel Experiment. As a matter of fact, there are at least 8 more versions so bitch please, get your research first before you give me sarcastic "mmkay?"'s. No. Stop right there. And for crying out loud, I don't think you realize that I put so much effort trying to make it my own by adding sarcasm, humor, dreams, and flashbacks so honestly, back off. **

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**Sorry for the rant. That bothered me a lot :I Thanks to everyone who reviewed though! I love you all. You give me hope. :3**

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	28. Chapter 28: So Punny

**Chapter 28**

After Max's tiny confession, we flew high above the sky for another hour in silence. Max still seemed distant, possibly figuring out how the heck we were going to save Angel from the School.

"We learned some stuff from the hawks," I said, trying to start up a conversation. Since when did I start conversations? Better yet, since when did I even _have _conversations?

Gosh, having your unrelated recombinant little sister kidnapped can really change a person. Remember that if that ever happens to you.

Probably won't.

"Some banking moves, how they communicate, stuff like that," I continued, somehow feeling like I was showing off. In a way, I was-they were some pretty boss moves.

"They're really cool," Nudge backed up, now flying closer to Max. "They, like, use the tips of their feathers to help aim them, and we tried it, and it was amazing. A little thing like that makes such a difference. Like, I practically didn't even know I could move those feathers."

"Can you teach us what you learned?" she asked. Interestingly enough, my heart sped up.

"Yeah, sure," I agreed.

It bothered me Max seemed very distant. Her eyes were narrowed and distracted, unusual for her typical calmness in the air. Something significant must have happened the past couple days to make her that way. It was my job to find out what that is. But for now, I'd let Max be with the silence before the Fang-style interrogating.

After a while, Gazzy and Nudge started dropping hints that they were hungry. Actually, hints would be an understatement. Groaning, "Oh, the hunger! The pain!" is not exactly what you call subtle.

The complaints finally ended when Max decided to land in a small, quiet town. She turned to face me. "Okay, we need food. And a street map wouldn't be the worst idea in the world."

"The School isn't going to show up on any map," I pointed out. _Now, let's see here...Illegal facility for drugs...Illegal facility for alcohol...ah! Here we go, illegal facility for recombinant experimenting!_

"I know. But we know pretty much where it is- there'll be a blank space on the map, but it would still help us to find roads to get there," she reasoned and started heading east. The rest of us followed.

Man, walking is a lot of work! I think we hiked, what, about fifteen minutes, a distance we could have covered in less than a couple minutes. I don't know how 100% humans do it, using their feet the majority of the time and all, it's madness I tell you.

Eventually, we reached a strip mall with the basic needs: gas station, beauty salon, small grocery-nothing too special.

"Need to get your hair done?" I sarcastically asked Max, referring to the countless times she's had to do it herself with the kitchen scissors.

_"DAMN YOU!" a voice yelled from the kitchen, followed by a big bang. I shuffled to the kitchen to see Max hunched over the sink with a pair of scissors sprawled on the floor. From the back, I saw Max's arms fidget around her face. _

_"Max..." I questioned suspiciously. _

_She made no move to turn around. "Go away!"_

_At this point, "go away" just made my suspicious meter rise a couple notches. Instantly, I moved toward her side. Realizing defeat, she sighed and slowly turned to me. _

_It took all my self-control not to burst out laughing as I gawked at her new, self-inflicted haircut. Her lack of bangs on the right side and the uneven lengths of both sides of her hair were quite the show. _

_Now, that was normal. The kicker? Her right ear was halfway bandaged, and it seemed as if blood was already seeping through it...fast. _

_I snickered. _

_"This. Isn't. Funny," she said, gritting her teeth and curling her fists into balls. She looked like she was about to take the scissors left on the tile floor and stab me in both eyes...twice. Though the look was usually reserved for Erasers, she had made a special exception for little ol' me. _

_I stayed quiet without a word, stil staring at her. _

_"Not a word to Iggy, or I swear both of your ears will be cut off COMPLETELY," she threatened. _

_Cue loud sprint towards Iggy's room. "IGGYIGGYIGGY, GUESS WHAT MAX DID? GAZ, WHERE'S THE CAMERA!"_

_"FANG, GET THE HELL BACK HERE IN THE KITCHEN!" Max shrieked. _

_"WHAT, I'M SORRY. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" I snickered even more. _

The loud snipping while cursing like a truck diver used to pretty much say it all, not to mention Iggy's suspicious OCD "spring cleaning" almost always afterwards.

Briefly aftter my comment, Max's elbow connected with my gut.

Ow.

"Well, what now?" the Gasman asked. "Should we keep going?"

"Let me think," she mumbled. We didn't have a lot of options here, I realized. Where would get money? The kids are starving. I'm _starving_. It won't be long until we'll start breaking down in hunger. And then we'll starve. Oh God, WE'REGONNADIEWE'REGONNADIEWE'REGONNADIE.

"Okay," Max said finally. "Looks like we'll have to-"

Before she finished, a huge fancy car I was willing to marry pulled in. It parked by the ATM as Gazzy whistled quietly and I could've sworn he muttered, "Oh, hot _damn_..."

Let's just say the Gasman has a car interest. We'll leave it at that.

Linkin Park blasted out (not literally, that'd be kind of creepy) of the window as it was pulled down. And instantly, we all dive bombed into the nearest bushes. (There's a reason people don't do that often, and the reason is that you end up faceplanting into the nearest soil patch. Not fun.)

"Shut up, you idiot!" he yelled into his phone. "If you hadn't lost your card, I wouldn't need cash!" He stuck his arm out to insert the card into the ATM and punched a few keys in. "That's what I get for trusting you with anything!" he snapped into the phone. "You can't handle getting dressed in the morning!"

Jeez, someone seemed a wee cranky this fine morn'.

And somehow, the magic box started puking out (yes, what eloquent imagery there) green bills like crazy. As the cranky man (as he will be known as) reached to retrieve the money, a sketchy-looking, pedophilic black truck came into view, screeching to a halt and just enough to bump the cranky man's car's bumper.

Ohhhh God, ship's going down. (Like the Titanic, see what I did there?)

"He's going to go ballistic," I predicted.

Cranky man turned to the truck, now swearing like a trucker to the trucker (BAHAHA, I'M ON A ROLL. SO _PUNNY_. A_HA_!).

"You (dirty word) piece of (fecal matter)! What the hell are you (mean word) doing to my (icky word) car? Are you (unknown word but strangely reminds me of Iggy) insane?"

The darkened window of the pickup rolled down, and we all held our breaths.

"What'd you say, dipstick?" Ari asked with that pedophilic smile again. Joy.

* * *

><p><strong>Dear frustrated readers, <strong>

**Yes, you are allowed to figuratively stab me in the eye multiple times for the agonizing wait of my return. AHAHAHA no. But really though, I'm quite sorry for not updating for a while. I promise I'll update again this week to make up for it. It's just that I usually write this when I'm in a good mood, 'cause that's usually when I'm at my funniest (least sane) but lately I've been going through some annoying drama that is really what it is: annoying. And alas, I have bad news:**

**I will most likely have to put this story on hiatus during the month of November. **

**Yeah, I'm sorry_. Now, _you can stab multiple times (37 like Carl? -If anyone even got that reference, review if you did). And no, I am not giving up this story, or some elaborate story about how I'm traveling the world to help the poor children. I wish. Actually, I'm planning on doing National Novel Writing Month this year or Nanowrimo for short (Google it if you are lost by my words ;)) And that's definitely going to take up lots of time. **

**The good thing about Nanowrimo is that by the end of it I'll have a fresh new plotline for a new story (Cue epic yayy's!) so that's good, right?**

**Right? **

_**Cue crickets. **_

**Keep reading!**

**-Fnickforever. **


	29. Chapter 29: Canadian Dreams

**Chapter 29**

It seemed it was hard to resist the urge to run the hell out of there in hopes of finding Narnia and forever live happily, away from Ari and the School's clutches.

Yes, Fang, because the School is the only reason that would never happen. And the fact that unfortunately, Narnia does _not_ exist.  
>Oh, and nice job talking to yourself again. Or am I talking in third person? Who am I even talking to?<p>

...What the hell is happening here?

Never mind.

Anyway, the interaction between Cranky Man and Ari (which may I add dyed his hair in a pine tint sort of tone) was quite the sight (Ha! That rhymed!) The man was _beyond _creeped out and got the heck out of there, faster than the flock after one of Gazzy's moments. Meanwhile, Max tried to calm the little children down by silently shush-ing them in a threatening tone. Before we knew it, both of the cars were speeding off into the distance. We all awkwardly inched out of the bushes. It was a weird thing to do actually, people were walking by, wondering why these overgrown filthy children were coming out of a single bush.

"He gets around," I commented.

"Was Ari's hair _green_?" Max asked with a hint of confusion. _No, Max,_ I thought,_ it's PINE._

"Yep," Nudge confirmed.

The flock exchanged glances, besides Iggy, and turned to the abandoned ATM. It beeped quietly, and slowly but surely, we all slowly walked across the parking lot towards the ATM. Gazzy even added the very subtle I'm-definitely-not-trying-to-hide-a-bomb-or-anything whistle. Nudge took the whole Mission:Impossible direction instead.

We're a pretty interesting bunch.

When we arrived, the ATM shined brightly and with large orange letters it asked, _Do you want another transaction?_

"Get cash," I pointed out obviously. Max gave me a look of total idiocy.

"You think?" she asked sarcastically, which in this case, I totally deserved.

"Hurry," the Gasman said.

Max hit a few buttons, causing the machine to ask how much we wanted to withdraw.

Two words: Cha. _Ching_.

Max stood there for a couple seconds staring at the screen. "Sixty dollars?"

Gah, she's too nice.

"He was a total jerk," I reasoned. "Take him for all he's got." I WANT MONEY. I'M GONNA OWN CANADA, BABY. DO YOU HEAR ME? CANADA. MAPLE SYRUP AND ALL. MWAHAHAHA, I'M GOING TO BUY A PET MONKEY, A JACUZZI, AND A FLYING CAR WHICH IN RETROSPECT WOULD TOTALLY BE USELESS DUE TO THE FACT I CAN FLY FASTER THAN A CAR AND I CAN'T EVEN DRIVE. NOTE TO SELF: DRAFT THREE WISHES IN CASE OF A GENIE RUN-IN.

NOTE TO SELF: ALSO USELESS TO WRITE IN CAPS. I FEEL LIKE I'M YELLING IN MY HEAD.

Okay.

She grinned. "You are _evil_. I like that." She started hitting some buttons again, while we stared at it.

Nudge began to sing. "Oh, yeah, oh yeah, we're ri-ich, we're gonna buy a ca-ar, oh, yeah."

Beside her, Gazzy was doing the Charlie Brown while Iggy was busily performing disturbing pelvic thrusts.

And you think I'm kidding. My life is actually _this_ strange.

The screen processed and finally announced..._Error_.

I think I just died a little. Oh well, so much for Canada. Darn.

Instead, Max asked for two hundred bucks - a lot of money for us, but because of those few seconds of hope, my expectations shot to dangerously high.

Then, it asked for the security code.

Lord, kill me now.

"Oh no," Max groaned. "Did anyone see it?"

Okay, we may have raptor vision, but no one was exactly paying attention when Cranky Man punched in his PIN.

"I _heard_ it," Iggy said slowly. YES! MY DREAMS OF CANADIAN OWNERSHIP IS STILL POSSIBLE! I wanted to hug my brother-from-another-test-tube right then and there.

"I think if we put in the wrong code more than twice, the whole thing shuts down and swallows the card," I said.

"Can you do it?" Max asked Iggy.

"Um, I'll try…" Iggy hesitantly put his hand over the keypad. His sensitive fingers oriented themselves to the keys.

"It's okay, Ig," I said. "Just give it your best shot." You may say, "Why, Fang, how in the world are you so supportive and still manage to become so incredibly hot and sexy?"

I'm so glad you asked. Well the truth is, it's a tough job maintaining all this beauty right here, but support? Psh... I'm in it for the maple syrup and moose, man.

Fo' sho.

We held our breaths as Iggy typed in five numbers. My fingers were crossed so tightly they felt like they were about to burst.

_Access denied. Please check your PIN and try AGAIN._

_Please, Iggy, don't fail me now! Or I swear to God, you will not hear the end of it_, I mentally threatened.

"Try again," Max comforted. "You've got the best ears on the planet."

Again, Iggy concentrated and punched in a different combination of five numbers.

The screen buzzed, processing. For a second there, we were teetering between jumping for joy or weeping for woeness (see what I did there?).

Then the machine started whirring, and soon a stack of twenties shot out.

"Yes!" I exclaimed being _way_ too overjoyed for my comfort level, punching the air. "Freaks rule."

"Grab it and go!" Max said as Nudge began pulling out bills and stuffing them into her pockets. We were turning to run when the machine beeped again.

_Thank you for your business. Please take your card._

"Okay, thank you," Max said in delight, grabbing the card. Then we ran back to the woods and found Narnia.

Not really. We just opened our wings, flew, and got the heck out of there. Nope, no magical lands whatsoever.

Frownie face.

* * *

><p>"Too bad we couldn't get more," I said sadly, counting the money a few hours later. Inside, I wanted to crawl in a hole and just die. No meese for me.<p>

Mooses? Moose? Which is it? Since, we're not buying Canada, guess we'll never know.

DAMMIT. I really wanted a moose army.

"Let's go back to the gas station and buy a bunch of food," Nudge suggested.

Max shook her head in disagreement. "People there may have already seen us. We've got to get out of here."

While we'd hidden in the woods, a red van had pulled up behind one of the stores. A young guy had unloaded some stuff from the back of it, then headed inside. Before the door swung shut, we saw him punch a time card.

So he was at work for at least a couple hours, till his first break.

The van sat there, practically staring at us - calling to us, even. It was like, seeing into my soul, with the angels singing beautifully in the background and the holy light of way shining upon the van.

Max and I looked at each other.

"Money from a jerk is one thing," Max said. "A car from just a guy is something else."

"We'd only need to _borrow_ it for a few hours," I said, trying to persuade her. "We could leave him some money as a rental fee."

"Are we stealing that car?" the Gasman asked, almost way too eagerly. "Let's."

Max frowned. "No. We're sort of _thinking_ about _borrowing_ it."

"That's like Grand Theft Auto," the Gasman said. "I saw it on TV. It's popular with kids."

"Better 'borrow' it soon," advised Iggy. "I hear a chopper."

In reality, Max should have completely seen through Iggy's bluff. Iggy, like Gazzy just wanted to live through a Grand Theft Auto moment.

Secretly, I was, too.

Anyway, Max hot wired the engine (how did she learn how to do that, even?) while Iggy sat in the driver's seat, pressing the gas. The motor grumbled into life, she slammed the hood, and we jumped into the van.

Then I just stared at the controls.

"Oh, my God," I said. "None of us has ever driven."

And here comes reason number two why I want to crawl in a hole and die. HOW THE HELL DID I EVEN MISS THAT? ARE YOU _KIDDING_ ME?

"I've seen people drive on TV," Max said, trying to sound confident - never really a good thing on our part. "How hard could it be?"

"Okay, guys," she said. "Here goes nothing."

* * *

><p>"Okay, okay, we're doing okay," Max said twenty minutes later, after finally finding and releasing the parking brake. I was almost ready to puke from Max's driving. Talk about an alternate carnival ride. I could tell the flock was thinking the same thing. "I mean, it's not as good as flying, but it beats the heck out of walking!"<p>

I resisted to urge to facepalm. She smiled bravely over at me while I gave her a steady look. "What?"

"Could you take it easy on the hairpin turns?" I said nicely, gritting my teeth to keep me from vomiting on her face. A gesture that I would think was not so nice.

"I'm getting better," she said. "I just had to practice."

"I didn't know a van could go up on two wheels like that," Nudge said. "For so _long_."

"I don't want to barf in a borrowed car," the Gasman said, seeming like he completely regretted ever thinking Max could give him the total GTA experience.

We are bird freaks, not video game designers. Get with the program, kid.

Max pressed her lips together and focused on the road, her tongue sticking out to the side a little. "We need to turn east in about five hundred yards," she muttered, peering out the van window.

A half mile later, she pulled over and rested her head against the steering wheel banging it ever-so-slightly. "Where the heck is the _road_?" she yelled in frustration. 'There's no freaking _road_ there!"

"You're going by your own directional senses," I pointed out, confused that her sense of direction wasn't working on land. Were her birdie senses not tingling?

"And there can't be roads everywhere you feel like there should be a road," Iggy added reasonably. As she sighed, Max pulled out onto the turnoff-less road and made a U-Turn.

"I'll just have to take a less efficient route," she decided.

"Argh!" After yet another unexpected turn that led us away from where we should have been going, she pulled over again and punched the steering wheel several times...added in with a couple profanities little children should never hear.

Max definitely has a mouth of a sailor.

"It's okay, Max," the Gasman said anxiously.

"Is she hitting the steering wheel?" Iggy asked in disbelief.

"Look," I said, pointing to a sign in an attempt to be a little more optimistic. A mopey Max definitely won't get us anywhere. "There's a town up ahead. Let's go there, get something to eat, and find an actual map. 'Cause this wandering thing ain't workin'."

Max sat up tall in the driver's seat and frowned, trying to look older. There were several places to eat. She turned into a parking lot slowly and backed up to reach a safe distance to park, away from everyone else.

As she turned off the engine, and Nudge and Gazzy sprang for the door. "We're alive!" yelled the Gasman dramatically, kneeling and kissing the ground while Iggy sang Hallelujah in the background.

"_Wait_!" Max ordered. "Look, we're really close to the School. This might _feel_ like the middle of nowhere, but really, Erasers could be anywhere and anyone. You know that. So we have to be careful."

"We have to eat," Nudge said, dangerously close to whining - though completely acceptable during the current situation. It felt like we hadn't eaten in days. I was ready to eat an Eraser whole if it even attempted to attack me.

You know, there is a reason why they call me Fang you know.

_"AHHHH!" The Eraser yelped. My head ached as a group of scientists came rushing in._

_"What? What is it?" they asked frantically. "What happened here?"_

_The Eraser raised his right arm as he tried to pry me off his forearm. I dangled in the air limp, my teeth completely sunk into his skin, deep. The only thing keeping me from falling were my teeth._

I had a nice childhood.

"I know, Nudge," she said gently. "We're going to. I'm just saying be really careful. Be on guard, be ready to run, okay? Anybody we see could be an Eraser."

They nodded. Max flipped down the visor so she could check myself in the mirror, and something small and heavy dropped into her lap.

She froze in place, and quickly I scanned the object.

Gingerly, she looked down. It took me a few seconds to realize it wasn't dangerous at all - just a simple key ring.

With the key to the van attached on it.

"Well, that'll simplify things," I said.

* * *

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**Dear readers**

**I'm sad to say this story will be on possible hiatus for the month of November due to my participation in NaNoWriMo (Google if you don't know what that is). I'll be so busy writing for that, I don't think I'll have any time for this story at all. I'm really sorry for that. I'll make sure to update as soon as I can or when I can afterwards. **

**Also, I'm very sad I only got 4 reviews from last chapter. It's pretty discouraging knowing my readers don't like my story enough to review :(**

**Anyways, if you don't follow my Twitter (Fnickforever) updates, the reason I didn't update when I said I would was because I got super sick. I only get sick once a year and it's always in October so it was pretty bad. Hope you understand!**

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**Keep reading!  
><strong>

**-Fnickforever. **


	30. Chapter 30: Fast Food Swag

**Chapter 30**

"I want my room to smell just like this," Iggy commented on the glorious scent as we entered the deliciously heart-cancer inducing, fast food restaurant. (For copyright reasons, I shall not say it was McDonald's) But then again, I already did.

So just pretend I didn't say McDona-

Dang it.

"It would be an improvement," Max agreed, recalling the actual stench of Iggy's humble abode - a suspicious combination between hydrogen peroxide and week-old smelly underwear. Which lead to the anal rules I set before he moved in my room.

Sigh. My room. Probably, my pile of burnt ashes now. Stupid Erasers.

The fast-food restaurant was quite crowded, cranking our absolute paranoia about a hundred notches...especially Max's. You could tell by the way she started scratching her arms furiously. The last time it was this extreme was when last year during Halloween when Gazzy decided to hide in random places and scare people (this is why Max never opens cabinet under the kitchen sink anymore). As we went in line for food, we tried to look as inconspicuous as possible.

I realized it was my turn to order and stepped up. "Three double cheeseburgers, a chocolate shake, a soda-the more caffeine and sugar, the better-three packs of fries, and three apple pies...please."

"I don't eat meat anymore," Nudge announced. I heard Iggy slightly make a "and-live-without-bacon?" gasp at her-a sound Nudge completely ignored. "Not after seeing the hawks go through the rabbits and snakes and other birds. It's just icky."

"It's the ciiiiiiiircle of lifeee," Gazzy sang softly. Iggy snickered.

"Feeding a crowd?" the cashier asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Fang said sweetly."

After Iggy went up and ordered, we took our food and I led him to the most seemingly private booth in the restaurant, leaving the others to order for themselves.

"Mmmph blarg dfjsdi," Iggy muttered, practically raping his food. Why, yes, children, that _is_ what it looked like. Aren't you so glad I made you think of that image?

Remember, I don't make the story, I just tell it like it is.

I raised my eyebrow and gestured to my face. "You got a little..."

Iggy stopped chewing and looked at me, mouth open with all that beautiful chewed burger glaring at me from inside of him. Small traces of ketchup were evident _all_ around his pale face - even his freaking forehead.

I blinked twice. "You got a little dirt on your chin."

Of course, being Iggy, he merely stuck his tongue out and felt for the ketchup around his mouth. You have to give him some credit though, kid's got a enormous tongue.

After a few minutes, the rest of the flock finally piled in our booth. I honestly swear I heard Max whimper when the fried chicken she ordered reached her mouth.

It's sad when we say, "it felt like we haven't eaten in days," quite literally.

Somehow though, it was too late when I finally realized the flock was surrounded by Erasers.

Yippee.

Max gave me the slightest nod and her eyes traveled to the fire exit door probably located behind me. I blinked to tell her I understood. My hand reached to tap Iggy's.

"Nudge," Max said under her breath. "Gazzy. Don't look up. In three seconds, jump over Fang ad out that exit door."

Nonchalantly, the rest of the flock kept eating as if nothing happened. Nudge even sipped her shake - clever girl. Then, out of nowhere she leaped over me and burst through the fire exit, Gazzy following close behind.

The alarm blared as the rest of us older kids fled out of there. The Erasers didn't even have a _chance_ at the speed we were able to get to the car. Max hurriedly stabbed the key in the ignition.

And once again, this was another example of our uncommon lives.

What most people worry about in the car: if their seatbelt will keep them safe from accidents.

What we worry about in the car: if Max won't kill us through driving before the Erasers rip our pretty birdy heads.

Instantly, Max floored it and the car reversed quickly, hearing the satisfying _bang_ of the back door connecting with an Eraser's face. Yes.

I feel like I'm in freaking Grand Theft Auto. Except you know, there weren't any mutants in the original version.

When Max finally figured out to drive forward, she shifted the gear to _D_ and sped through the streets to avoid the bird-eating Erasers. Granted, a large amount of the cars we passed through had passengers said words we were never allowed to say, however, I'd rather be yelled at than shot at.

"Max!" Nudge shrieked as we almost hit a semitrailer. We were inches away from killing ourselves - due to a certain fourteen-year-old's driving.

To this day, I'm never exactly calm whenever I step into a car with Max.

"It's so bulky!" Max complained while the van somehow managed to teeter on two wheels on the right, turning a sharp right.

We really should enter into entertainment. Reality TV or something. Care for some_ 1000 Things You Shouldn't Do On the Road_? Or perhaps_ Vans XTREME_?

"It's a _van_," I said, bothered at the fact that apparently, it wasn't that obvious.

For minutes end, Max mindlessly zipped through the streets trying to lose the black cars following us from behind, but to no avail. The longer we drove, the more frustrated the girl next to me became. And death-by-frustrated-teenager was not really the way I wanted to leave this world, to be honest.

"I'm gonna stop!" Max finally decided, bariking her orders. "Jump out and get into the air as fast as you can!"

"Okay!" the rest of the flock agreed.

As another attempt, she swung off the road abruptly, right smack into the field of corn. We ran over piles and piles of wasted corn as we went along to find any sort of hiding area - their house enclosed in a secluded location. I heard Gazzy silently praying to himself in the back.

"In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit..." he continued while Nudge went with the classic Dear-God-please-don't-let-this-be-the-end chanting path.

After a while, we realized they did not hear the sounds of the car engine anymore, or the image of the black car reflecting on the rearview mirror. And to add to our luck, a road finally became clear in our sight. Finally, after what felt like forever, we reached the road - cement and all its glory.

And the cherry on top of this sundae of pure and utter unfortune?

A black sedan appeared right in front of us.

Oh, and we hit at an increasing speed of sixty miles an hour.

…

Nbd.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I have a lot to say actually, lol, so bear with me. **

**First off, SO SORRY I haven't been here in almost two months. I told you I'd be doing NaNoWriMo in November so there was no way I was going to be able to update during that month. Saying I might be able to was wayyyy too optimistic on my part so sorry about that. But then again, this was also my first year doing it. December got sooo busy, holy crap. It's my first holiday in the world of Fanfiction too so it got really difficult to balance everything out. **

**Second, you'll be happy to hear that I won the NaNoWriMo challenge which I'm sooooo proud of. WOOT WOOT. The title is Chasing Cars (yes, like the song) and I believe I ended with 50,800 words or something like that. Currently, it's an MR fanfiction but I will have two versions: one with MR names and the other with non-MR names. The sad part is, I've been continually editing the darn thing, but guess what? I freaking lost my flash drive. And that had about a third of it in there. So I need to find it or else I will become severely depressed. But rest assured, I will put up the first chapter of Chasing Cars here SOME day, I'm still debating whether that day will be soon because I'm already updating ALW and this. **

**Thirdly, HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! I wanted to get this chapter up by today so I can give you guys a little treat over break. It's also an apology cookie for not being here for a while. I know it's not the best chapter but it has its quirks. ;) Though, I do have to get something straight. Yes, I do in fact now I'm going really really slow with this story and I'm not picking up the pace. The reason being is that I enjoy posting at this pace. You already know the story for this one. What is the point of hurrying it up? (And no, do not PM arguing) The main purpose I had for starting FSTAE was so every now and then, you'll find this in your story alerts and have a little laugh or two. I never planned it to be climactic or anything. Gosh. **

**Anyways, to end in a positive note, I hope you all are having a wonderful winter break :D**

**Follow me on Twitter: Fnickforever**

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**I missed you guys!**

**Keep reading!**

**-Fnickforever.**


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